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ascribed by the Mecca press to the influence of the precepts of Islam but was much
more probably an imitation of western practice in this respect I he system o
regular police has been extended to Hasa, and the town police of Riyadh have been
put into a uniform which is a compromise between East and W est m that the
khaki tunic has a khaki shirt attached to it. In the attitude towards women, ^ ,
however, there is no change. Another article was published recommending e
home as the only place for women, and it ended with the assurance that the
woman who rocks the cradle with her right hand rocks the world with her lett.
As a result of the practice by which women servants and slaves are segregated in
ground-floor rooms which have no opening on the street and admit on y sue i
air and light as can enter by a small door on the court-yard the womenfolk m the
King’s palace are ravaged by tuberculosis. An Egyptian lady doctor who was
engaged for the palace at a high salary managed, before she resigned m disgust
at her helplessness, to recommend that the new palace, which was about to be
built should have windows on the street on the ground floor, and this was
supported by the American mission doctors from Bahrein who were consulted
by the King. It is said that Ibn Saud promised to introduce this improvement,
but the traditional belief that an aperture that admits light and air from the
street will sooner or later admit lovers for the inmates must have got the upper
hand, for the new palace shows no change in this respect.
Economic and Financial.
216. A reference to the development of the Hasa oil-field and to the efiect
which the resulting revenue may have upon the future of the country was made
in paragraph 210 above. The discovery of this natural resource came very appro
priately at a time when two successive dry years had left most of the country
with little or no pasture and driven many Saudi tribes northwards into the
territories of Ibn Saud’s neighbours in search of grazing for their flocks and
herds. It is early to prophesy as to the extent of the oil-field, but the company
are very optimistic both as to its extent and as to the quality of the oil. In
comparison with oil the work of the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate must
appear insignificant, even if the results seemed likely to approach the most
sanguine estimate, which is not the case. At the present moment the syndicate
are^laying 37 miles of pipe-line to bring water to the mine to work the ore,
and this must add considerably to the cost of production, and offset to a large
extent the rise in the price of gold. Working on behalf of the Saudi Govern
ment C A S.O.C. have been boring for water at Jedda and Taif, but without
result. At the end of the year deep boring was being carried out at Riyadh
in the hope of finding artesian water in quantity sufficient for irrigation.
217. The communications problem is being tackled slowly. Not content
with wireless telegraphv, for which he has some sixty stations, the King has
commissioned C.A.S.O.C. to supply him with about fifteen wireless telephone sets.
An expert was borrowed from Palestine to report on the postal, telegraph and
telephone system. The negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Egypt about
the Mecca-Jedda-Medina roads went on throughout the year: but it was not
until Januarv 1939 that the agreement was concluded and the way was clear
for these urgent works to be effected. The Saudi Government already possess
a tank for the storage of Diesel oil in bulk, and they propose to have tanks
for petrol erected in Jedda and smaller ones at various places in the interior.
With the aid of the manager of S.A.M.S. many of the beacons and buoys marking
the entrance and the channel of Jedda harbour have been replaced by better
ones But the event of the year in the matter of communications is the realisa
tion of the Saudi dream of a Saudi port on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. with regular calls
by foreign steamers. The Saudi authorities hope to have a large port at Ras
Tanura, roughly opposite Bahrein, and two or three steamers bringing material
for C.A.S.O.C. did, in fact, call there in December. Whether the Saudi dream
will ever be fully realised is extremely doubtful. The experts are inclined to
think that Ras Tanura will merely be an anchorage where cargo can be tran
shipped into barges and towed to Ujair for Hofuf and Riyadh, or to other
small ports for the local requirements of the oil company. It takes about as
long to reach Hofuf in a car as it does to get to Basra, where the traveller
has & several air and steamship lines and a railway at his disposal; while Hofuf
is separated from Ujair by a belt of sand, and Ujair is still some hours of
T