Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎144r] (288/540)

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industry at Medina. It appears, however, from an advertisement published early
in 1935 that a concern there, presumably the same, is prepared to sell a moderate
quantity of cloth. The water from Waziriyya (see paragraph 134 of the last
report) continues to flow into Jedda, and has proved a very useful source of supply.
No progress seems to have been made with schemes for general supplies of
electricity, but an Indian notable undertook to provide plant for the lighting of
the sacred precincts at Mecca, and it was to arrive early in 1935. The hotels
mentioned in paragraph 136 of the report for 1933 have been maintained. At the
end of the year the Banque Misr group were preparing to provide similar, perhaps
rather better, accommodation in the building which they had rented in Jedda (see
paragraph 95 above).
Communications, Roads and Ports.
144. The Saudi Government announced officially on the 15th June that they
had cancelled the concession for a railway between Jedda and Mecca (see para
graph 132 of the report for 1933) owing to the failure of the concessionaires to
fulfil their obligations, after the period for doing so had been more than once
prolonged. Other railway projects brighten the dreams of the concession-hunters
already mentioned. At present, however, the only scheme which merits attention
is that mentioned in paragraph 68 above for reconditioning the Hejaz Railway.
145. Motor transport schemes attracted much attention in 1934. The most
important, that for a route from Nejef to Medina, has been dealt with in para
graph 13. Much interest was taken in certain other projects, but no attempt can
usefully be made as yet to deduce the whole story from the tangle of confused
information. The Government seemed anxious to organise a route or routes from
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. coasts to the Holy Cities and a postal route to Jauf. Several
well-known persons were mentioned at different times as being interested, notably
Siddiq, the King’s enterprising chauffeur, M. Van de Poll, the Islamised
Dutchman, Mr. Philby and Abdur-Rahman Qusaibi, of the well-known Persian
Gulf firm. The Government seem to have made the old mistake of offering too
little and wanting too much. In October the Umm-al-Qura announced that a
transport company had been formed for the benefit of pilgrims wishing to come
overland from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . This was premature, as no commercial scheme
had materialised up to the end of the year. All that happened was that on the
4th December the Saudi Director of Finance in Hasa and the Qusaibis announced
jointly in Bahrein that the Saudi authorities would provide transport at stated
rates for any number of pilgrims up to fifty.
146. These developments have a special interest in connexion with the efforts
of certain firms in India to organise through motor services from that country to
the Hejaz. One attempt to provide such a service on a commercial scale was made
early in 1934, in defiance of the warnings of the Government of India. It was a
fiasco, because, while two of the three cars which started reached Mecca, they were
late for the pilgrimage, after the passengers had undergone the utmost hardships.
The Government of India renewed their warnings in anticipation of the 1935
pilgrimage, but services were again advertised. Two things are clear. There is
nothing impossible in the idea of bringing pilgrims all the way by car, and motor
transport will eventually provide a convenient means of combining visits to the
holy places in Iraq, and perhaps Palestine, with the visits to Mecca and Medina.
On the other hand, no responsible British authority can encourage commercial
enterprises of the kind until the promoters have proved their ability to organise
them properly, with adequate capital, full knowledge of the routes and the consent
of the various Governments concerned.
147. No important developments were reported during the year in connexion
with the still very primitive system of roads. The California Arabian Standard
Oil Company projected towards the end of the year a short road from Jebel
Dhahran to the coast at a spot called Khobar or Al-Akhbar, where a pier was also
under construction.
148. No port improvements of any consequence were effected in the Hejaz in
1934. The project of creating a port at Ras Tanura on the Hasa coast continued
to languish.