Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎194r] (388/540)

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(i) A decree on the departure of debtors, published on the 25th November,
which provided legal means of preventing defendants from leaving
the jurisdiction of courts in which they are sued for debt.
O') A regulation on motor-car drivers, published on the 2nd December.
151. The above list does not include the constitutional enactments mentioned
Section III (2). An omission in the Report for 1931 may be repaired by
mentioning that a regulation of Waqfs, published on the 18th September, 1931.
was of special interest to foreign Moslems. It provided means whereby,
notwithstanding the general prohibition of the acquisition of real property
by foreigners, they might acquire such property for the specific purpose of the
immediate creation of a Waqf.
VIII. —Press.
152. The weekly Umm-al-Qura continued to appear at Mecca during the
year and to be the principal vehicle used by the Government for the publication
both of official communiques, regulations, &c., and inspired articles. It was
especially remarkable for the profusion with which it published documents and
inspired comments relative to the defeat of Ibn Rifada, the adoption of the name
of Saudi Arabia and the revolt in Asir. The Umm-al-Qura, however, no longer
stands alone. A new weekly called the Saut-al-Hijaz, or Voice of the Hejaz,
began to appear in April 1932. The choice of this name might have been thought
significant at a time when there was much discontent in the Hejaz with the
Saudi regime. Some of the promoters were people who might have liked, if they
dared, to voice that discontent. Indeed an ex-editor of this paper was among the
townsmen arrested during the Ibn Rifada affair. The new organ has always,
however, been carefully conducted, and has increasingly professed the best
sentiments of loyalty. It had its reward in September when it was allowed to
publish an interview with the King himself, in which he gave edifying though
vague answers to three questions regarding the situation on the northern frontier
since the annihilation of Ihn Rifada, His Majesty’s relations with neighbouring
Governments, and the Arab Congress.
153. Nothing more need be said under this heading except that there was
in 1932 even less machinery in Saudi Arabia for supplying the European press
with news than there had been before. On one or two occasions the local manager
of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Co. sent telegrams to Reuter at the request
of the Government. Mr. Philby was little in the Hejaz, and while there observed
the silence which he had imposed on himself as a press correspondent in 1931,
when, as was said in the report for that year, he still desired to write nil nisi
honum and therefore decided to write nil.
IX. —Education.
154. It is again impossible to add anything material to what was said in
Section IX of the report for 1930. There are no signs of any reorganisation on
modern lines of the native Islamic system of education such as it is, and very
little seems to be done in the way of sending young men to study abroad, although
the information of the Legation on this subject is imperfect. A small number
of doctors are sent to follow special courses, e.g., in X-ray work and bacteriology,
but the number is almost negligible. The proposal to send a small party to
Turkey for special training in military matters and aviation is mentioned in
paragraph 83.
X. —The Pilgrimage.
155. It was announced in 1931 (with doubtful propriety, according to some,
from an Islamic point of view) that Pilgrimage Day would fall on a Friday
in 1932, a coincidence which is believed to bring a much-multiplied blessing.
In spite of this and other efforts to stimulate the flow of pilgrims, the numbers
from overseas were very disappointing, chiefly owing to continued depression
in the countries of origin, a little owing to the adverse attitude of certain
Governments.