Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎149r] (298/540)

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199. The mapping of Arabia still leaves almost everything to be desired.
The War Office produced in 1934 two further sheets of Philby’s Routes in Arabia,
twelve sheets of which had been prepared from Mr. Philby’s data in 1933. This
map, though no more than a collection of sketches, covers a wide area between
parallels 28° north and 36° north and, being the result of surveys on the ground
-i^by a competent adviser, should be a valuable contribution to the effort which, it is
hoped, will some day be made to improve on the existing general maps of Arabia.
The California Arabian Standard Oil Company have also made since 1933 a
notable addition to the cartography of Arabia by producing two sections of a
1 / 500,000 map of the north-eastern area. It does not give the results of their own
surveys, but is a useful compilation on an adequate scale from information
previously available only in a scattered form.
Ornithology.
200. An elderly but enthusiastic ornithologist named Bates, who is an
American by origin but lives in England and works under the auspices of the
British Museum, arrived in Jedda in January and stayed until late in April.
Collaborating with Mr. Philby, he made an extensive study of bird life in the
neighbourhood of Jedda and collected some 300 specimens representing about
120 species, several rare and one which is said to be a previously unknown species
of Red-legged Partridge. Mr. Philby has to some extent continued this w T ork in a
field which seems to have been previously little explored on scientific lines.
Appendix.
Summary of an Account of the Administrative System of Saudi Arabia given in
Fuad Bey Hamza's Book, The Heart of the Arabian Peninsula (Mecca,
1933), p. 63 ff.
The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. explains that while he was preparing his book the unification of
Ibn Baud’s dominions was proclaimed in September 1932. As this was to be
followed by a new Constitution for the whole kingdom and the consequent
creation of a new administrative organisation adapted thereto, he abandoned his
intention of dealing fully with the subject of administration in a separate
section and confined himself to adding an account of the existing system to the
geographical section of his work. He refers to the position as between the Hejaz
on the one hand, and Nejd and its Dependencies on the other, after the Saudi
conquest of the former, and describes the legal situation, before the date of the
unification, as having been that they were kingdoms independent of each other,
having no connexion but that of a common throne and having each its own
Administration. In practice, however, the connexion was much closer. There
were no customs barriers or defined geographical boundaries. Their foreign
policy was one and directed by one person in the name of both, not on behalf of
each" separately. Despite the lack of any legal definition of the measure of
connexion or separation, they were closely related in such matters as defence,
communications, posts, telegraphs and jurisdiction.
As regards administrative organisation and Government regulations, each
of the kingdoms had its own system. The Hejaz was, perhaps, closer to Western
ways than Nejd and its Dependencies, which had its peculiar arrangements
adapted to the nature of the territory, the temper of its inhabitants and their
conditions of life. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. proceeds to give an account of the position in
regard to each before the unification.
Nejd and its Dependencies.
The King was the source of all authority and decided all matters in the final
resort. There was nothing to condition his absolute authority except the Sharia,
i.e., the sacred law. He had no body of Ministers to assist him. His diwan