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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎69r] (138/540)

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The record is made up of 1 file (268 folios). It was created in 18 Apr 1931-18 May 1945. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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43
162. Very few Turks now come on pilgrimage. It would be almost, if not
quite, impossible for a Turk to be allowed to leave Turkey if he openly declared
the pilgrimage to be the object of his journey, since the authorities would
consider that the object did not warrant the export of the foreign currency
required. The Saudi statistics showed fifty-five Turkish subjects as having made
the pilgrimage, but none of them applied to the Turkish Legation in Jedda for a
return visa as they would have had to do if they had come in the regular way.
Egypt-
163. In virtue of the Saudi-Egyptian Treaty of May 1936, a Saudi Legation
was established in Egypt with effect from the 27th December, 1936, with the
former Saudi agent in Egypt as Charge d’Affaires and consul-general; and an
Egyptian Legation was established in Jedda as from the 17th January, 1937.
The Egyptian Minister, Abdul Rahman Azzam, who was appointed to Saudi
Arabia in 1936 in addition to diplomatic duties in several other capitals in the
Middle East, did not come to Jedda during the year and his legation remained in
the charge of a Charge d’Affaires.
164. The circumstances attending the arrival and stay of the Egyptian
Mahmal mission in the Hejaz tended to bear out the opinion expressed before
hand in a despatch from the Legation, that the acceptance by Ibn Saud of the
despatch of the Mahmal as far as Jedda could only be considered as a device to
save the face of the Egyptian Government to some extent. The mission, which
was led by the President of the Senate and included other prominent Egyptians,
had no official reception at Jedda other than that afforded by the presence of an
aide-de-camp to the Amir Faisal and a few down-at-heel police—a striking
contrast to the imposing ceremonial with which the Mahmal was despatched from
Egypt. The Hejaz press referred to the arrival of the “ Mission of Honour ”
but did not mention the word “ Mahmal.” The President of the Mission delivered
a speech at Mecca in the presence of Ibn Saud in which he referred with satis
faction to “ the return to the old system of the despatch of the holy Kiswa to
the revered Kaba by the Egyptian Government in accordance with the tradition
of the Kings, Sultans and rulers of Egypt since distant ages,” but the Kiswa
was not handed over then but delivered to the Mosque officials on an occasion
not advertised beforehand and in a manner which seemed calculated to diminish
its importance. In November it was announced in the Egyptian press that the
Mahmal would not go beyond Suez for the 1938 pilgrimage, though
the Kiswa would be sent to Jedda to be forwarded to Mecca. This
probably marks the end of the Mahmal so far as Saudi Arabia is concerned,
but whether this was provided for by private arrangement with Ibn Saud in
1936, or whether the cool reception of the Mahmal in Jedda disappointed the
Egyptian Government and was regarded as a rebuff, is not known. It may be
that the view has prevailed which was expressed by some members of the Egyptian
Chamber of Deputies when a bill providing a credit of £E. 33,856 for expenses
connected with the despatch of the Mahmal to Jedda was approved, viz., that the
expenditure was no longer justified, the procedure having lost its meaning in
modern conditions and having been deprived of its prestige value by the limita
tions imposed by Ibn Saud.
165. The most likely explanation is that the final abandonment of the
custom of sending the Mahmal was provided for at the time of the Agreement of
1936, with the limited ceremonial of the 1937 pilgrimage as a half-way house.
Certainly there has been no friction visible as a result of anything the Saudi
authorities did or did not do to the “ Mission of Honour,” and relations between
the two Governments seem to be good. The tendency observed in 1936 for Saudi
Arabia to look to Egypt for help in providing trained personnel for various
purposes was continued in 1937. Besides several schoolmasters the Saudi Govern
ment obtained from Egypt an expert to advise them about their date groves in
Hasa and another about date-packing in Medina, and Egypt was one of the
Moslem countries from which Ibn Saud was thinking that a military expert
might be obtained. The renewal of the allocation of Egyptian waqf funds to
charitable purposes in the Hejaz enabled the two Governments to agree upon a
scheme which should benefit the Heiaz in general and not merely destitutes; it
is agreed that half of the sum which would formerly have been spent on wheat
for free distribution in the Hejaz shall be used to supplement Saudi funds for

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Content

This file contains copies of annual reports regarding the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia) during the years 1930-1938 and 1943-1944.

The reports were produced by the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) and sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (and in the case of these copies, forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India), with the exception of the reports for 1943 and 1944, which appear to have been produced and sent by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda, Stanley R Jordan.

The reports covering 1930-1938 discuss the following subjects: foreign relations; internal affairs; financial, economic and commercial affairs; military organisation; aviation; legislation; press; education; the pilgrimage; slavery and the slave trade; naval matters. The reports for 1943 and 1944 are rather less substantial. The 1943 report discusses Arab affairs, Saudi relations with foreign powers, finance, supplies, and the pilgrimage, whilst the 1944 report covers these subjects in addition to the following: the activities of the United States in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East Supply Centre, and the Saudi royal family.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (268 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 269; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-12 and ff 45-268; these numbers are also written in pencil but are not circled.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎69r] (138/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2085, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036362870.0x00008b> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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