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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎233v] (467/540)

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The record is made up of 1 file (268 folios). It was created in 18 Apr 1931-18 May 1945. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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68
(8) Egyptian Shell Benzine.
213. This matter has also been referred to incidentally in other connexions.
The facts of the case may be summed up briefly. All bulk supplies of petroleum
products imported by merchants into Jedda are deposited in a store controlled
by the municipal authorities. The Government had not renewed at the end of
1930 the previous contract with Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Co., the Shell
agents, to supply their requirements. Negotiations with other interests for a
similar contract broke down in the early part of the year, and in the autumn the
first consignment of the special order placed with Soviet Russia in the summer
had not yet arrived. In these circumstances, the Government relied on the local
market for supplies during the greater part of the year. They had increasing
difficulty in inducing Messrs. GelTatly, Hankey and Co., and Sharqieh (Limited),
the agents for Egyptian Shell and Standard Oil, respectively, to accommodate
them, except on terms of payment in cash. By September, they had neither
benzine nor money to buy it with. Their efforts to overcome the reluctance of the
two firms to supply it on credit were unsuccessful. The Dutch Bank refused to
advance money pending the outcome of the financial negotiations then proceeding.
On the 12th September, the bank informed the Director-General of Finance of
the failure of those negotiations. The same evening a clean sweep was made of
all the benzine in the municipal store. It presently came out that this coup was
merely the consummation of a series of thefts effected under the cloak of falsified
returns and excuses for preventing the agents from getting access to their stocks
for purposes of verification. Including the stocks raided on the night of the
12th September, Egyptian Shell found that they had been robbed to the tune of
about £12,000, Standard Oil of about £4,000 worth.
214. The scandal was great. It is uncertain how far other authorities were
implicated in the proceedings of Abdullah Suleyman. As a result of protests
by Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Co., and the strong intervention of His
Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires, the commercial side of the matter was patched up
so far as Egyptian Shell were concerned, by a contract under which the Finance
Department undertook to pay the company off on an instalment basis, which
promised to be not unfavourable if it were adhered to. This was satisfactory, as
far as it went, but it did not do away with the fact that British property, held
in trust by the Hejazi authorities, had been arbitrarily appropriated.
Mr. Hope Gill followed up his initial action by an official protest made under
instructions from His Majesty’s Government, and a request for a formal
assurance that such action would not occur again. The Hejazi Government
attempted a feeble defence, turning on an attempt to show that the benzine had
been taken in accordance with a standing arrangement of Messrs. Gellatly,
Hankey and Co., and that their proper course, if they had a grievance, was to
seek a judicial remedy. A cavalier reply was returned to a further
communication from Mr. Hope Gill, forwarding a memorandum, in which
Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Co. rebutted the arguments put forward by the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Director-General of Finance. On
his return to Jedda in December, His Majesty’s Minister preferred not to
pursue this unsatisfactory diplomatic discussion until after the date fixed for
the payment of the first instalment provided for in the commercial contract. To
complete the record up to the end of the year, it is only necessary to add that no
payment was forthcoming at the end of December, and that the scandal, thus
restored to its original proportions, became one of the most serious preoccupations
of the Legation in 1932.
(9) Al Fadhl Bankruptcy
215. This case began before 1931 and was outstanding at the end of the k
year. It is of considerable commercial importance, but need only be described
in outline. The Al Fadhls are an influential family of Nejdi origin settled in
the Hejaz. Various members of the family were concerned in a business carried ^ ^
on in the latter country and in India. The affairs of the firm having become
involved they eventually closed down their branches in India, leaving very little
in the way of assets and certain liabilities, the most important of which was a
debt to the Imperial Bank of Persia in respect of a loan secured on a deposit
of pearls. The value of this deposit was alleged to have been grossly overstated.

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Content

This file contains copies of annual reports regarding the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia) during the years 1930-1938 and 1943-1944.

The reports were produced by the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) and sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (and in the case of these copies, forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India), with the exception of the reports for 1943 and 1944, which appear to have been produced and sent by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda, Stanley R Jordan.

The reports covering 1930-1938 discuss the following subjects: foreign relations; internal affairs; financial, economic and commercial affairs; military organisation; aviation; legislation; press; education; the pilgrimage; slavery and the slave trade; naval matters. The reports for 1943 and 1944 are rather less substantial. The 1943 report discusses Arab affairs, Saudi relations with foreign powers, finance, supplies, and the pilgrimage, whilst the 1944 report covers these subjects in addition to the following: the activities of the United States in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East Supply Centre, and the Saudi royal family.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (268 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 269; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-12 and ff 45-268; these numbers are also written in pencil but are not circled.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎233v] (467/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2085, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036362872.0x000044> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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