Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎121r] (242/540)

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9 .
161. Urban development is promised in Jedda and Mecca, new boulevards
for the former, a new park for the latter. The chief addition to Jedda in 1935
was a new customs building and work was well advanced at the end of the year
on new buildings on the “ quarantine quay ” close by. The contract for the latter
was given to the Italian Odello, mentioned in paragraphs 79 ff. above. One
electrical plant presented by an Indian notable was installed in the sacred
precincts at Mecca during the year. Certain steps seem to have been taken to
repair the mosque at Medina and to restore to some extent the tombs there, the
desecration of which by Wahhabi fanatics had outraged the feelings of many
Moslems.
Communications, Roads and Ports.
162. Mention has already been made in paragraph 160 of the revival of
the idea of a railway (or tramline) between Jedda and Mecca, and in paragraph 62
of the position in regard to the Hejaz Railway. No other railway development
is in sight.
163. As regards motor transport, the only important addition to be made
to paragraphs 144 and 145 of the report for 1934 is that in May the Government
promulgated a decree enacting the creation of a single company to take the place
of the four existing companies working under Government auspices and the much
larger number of private transport concerns. The new company was to be
divided into two sections corresponding respectively with the four Government
companies and the former private concerns. It was to take over the rolling-stock
of the various private firms at a valuation in return for shares in the combine.
Many details of the scheme were obscure. Later in the year the new arrange
ment did not seem to be working very happily, but a better judgment of it can
be formed when it has stood the test of the 1936 pilgrimage season.
164. The road system is still most primitive. It cannot be too often
repeated that what is called a road in Saudi Arabia is merely a practicable track
over which cars bump or bowl according to the character of the natural surface.
Saudi road-making consists in making such tracks a little more practicable. It
was intended after the 1935 pilgrimage to improve the worst part in Saudi
territory of the track between Nejef and Medina (see paragraph /), but it is
not known whether this has been done. Mention was made in the local press
of other minor projects to improve existing roads and strike out one or two
new ones. A report from Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan for May mentioned road-making activity
in the north of Saudi Arabia. A passing reference may be made in this connexion
to an experimental journey by cars made by certain merchants of Damascus to
the Hejaz just after the 1935 pilgrimage to explore the possibility of regular
motor services. The general conclusion would appear to have been that the
country is too difficult and the time taken too long for the idea to be feasible.
165. Foreign enterprise has done a little to stimulate interest in road
making of a more modern type. The Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate s road,
mentioned in paragraph 159, will probably mark an advance in this direction,
although it is not ambitiously planned. I he interest of Talaat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. Haib m
the subject has been adverted to in paragraph 160, but, as there stated, expense
is likely to be a great deterrent. It is difficult to form estimates, but it seems
probable that it would cost not less than £1,000 a mile to make asphalted roads
to Mecca and Medina, and it might well cost a good deal more. Talaat Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
does not seem to have been encouraged by the results of one small experiment just
outside Jedda, where he had a few hundred yards of asphalted road laid during
the year under review.
166. There is no port work to record, except the construction by the
California Arabian Standard Oil Co. of a small pier for their own use at Akhbai
(Khobar) on the coast near their oil well at Dhahran, and the intended construction
of a pier north of Jedda by the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate (paragiaph loJ).
The improvements at Jedda mentioned in paragraph 161 are on land only.