Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎188r] (376/540)

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it would serve any useful purpose. He did so without much hope and subsequently
impressed on Fuad Bey Hamza the importance from an international point
of view of joint efforts to combat plagues of locusts. He admitted that it would
be difficult for the Saudi Government to organise and complete machinery for
reporting on the occurrence and movement of locusts, but urged that any reports
all would be of value. Following on this Mr. Hope Gill supplied buad Bey
“■^"^ith a concise memorandum showing the sort of information that would be
useful and Fuad Bey undertook to forward any information that could be
obtained. In due course his Ministry informed the Legation that flying locusts
had appeared in small quantities in ihe Nabt district north of Yanbu.
98. It is hoped that too much ridicule will not be heaped on this mouse-like
result of the mountainous labour over locusts. In general it may be said that,
while the progress of the Saudi Government towards participation in inter
national effort on modern lines is slow and painful, the bald facts strung together
in this sub-section suggest some faint hope for the future. Unfortunately no
information is available regarding the visit of the Saudi mission to Geneva
at the end of April.
(D) Treaties.
99. The appendix to this report brings up to date the list of Saudi treaties
given in Appendix I of the annual report for 1931.
HI.— Internal Affairs.
General Situation.
100. Ibn Saud was in Nejd at the beginning of the year. He went to Hasa
at the beginning of January and stayed until the 7th February. It may be noted
that although he had accepted in June 1931 the pronouncement of the Ulema of
Nejd that annual celebrations of his accession were un-Islamic, it was nevertheless
celebrated in Jedda, though not in Mecca, on the 8th January, 1932. It was,
indeed, celebrated officially under the auspices of the Amir Feisal though with less
ceremony than in the two previous years. The King himself returned to Mecca on
the 7th April in time for the pilgrimage, which he never misses. He intended
to go back to Nejd after a short stay in the Hejaz, but was delayed by the
Ibn Rifada affair. He summered at Taif from the 22nd May until the
6th September, when he went back to Riyadh for the remainder of the year.
101. The general malaise which prevailed in the Hejaz during all the latter
part of 1931 continued into the early part of 1932. Misery was rife among
the northern tribes. The towns remained depressed and dissatisfied. A poorei
pilgrimage than ever brought no comfort. Early in the year there were the usual
rumours of trouble elsewhere. They were as usual exaggerated. No disorder
occurred in the Shammar area. The principal tribes involved on the rebel side in
the insurrection of 1929, the Mutair and the Ajman, were sullen but inactive.
The only regions in which definite trouble is known to have occurred were that
south of Hufuf, where a punitive force was sent against the Murra to round up
criminals (who duly had their arms and legs cut oft) and the Najran aiea north
of Asir, where the disaffection was considerable enough to necessitate the despatch
of forces under the well-known leader Khalid-bin-Luwey, Amir of Khurma.
There was probably some simmering in Asir itself, but on the whole the internal
situation in Saudi Arabia was uneasy rather than disquieting.
102 Then came Ibn Rifada, whose adventure must now be looked at from
the Saudi side. The rebel force which crossed the frontier in the night of the
20th-21st May did not probably amount to more than 250 men, who may have been
joined by others at their first resting place just inside the frontier. They went on
to Haql some 30 miles south of Aqaba, and this was for some time the principal
rebel base. By the end of May the numbers had grown to some 500; by the middle
of June to some 1,000, of whom over two-thirds were said to have come from
over the border; by the end of June to anything from 1,000 to 1,500. These forces
were ill-found in every way. The next most important leader after Ibn Rifada,
one of the Abu Tuqeyqa family, was soon at loggerheads with the chief. Local
adherents began to slip away when they found that there was no money and
little food. British action was making it increasingly impossib e to get these or
further recruits from across the frontier. The rebel chiefs might have expected