Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎234r] (468/540)

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As the firm and/or its members were all in the Hejaz and had important assets
there, the bank were anxious to seek redress in that country. The Legation
in Jedda, while considering them the victims of their own imprudence in
accepting the pearls without verification, did what it could in circumstances
rendered difficult by the lack of proper judicial machinery and the known
influence of various members of the A1 Fadhl family. Following on earlier action
by Mr. Hope Gill in 1930, His Majesty’s Minister handed a strong, though not
official, statement on the subject to Sheikh Yussuf Yasin in February 1931 and
mentioned the matter to Ibn Saud himself on the 4th March. Among the reasons
for thus taking the matter to the highest quarter were the fact that members of
the A1 Fadhl family occupied important official positions, the fact that the firm
were believed to have acted as the King’s agents in the past and a suggestion
that their difficulties were partly due to the failure of the Hejazi Government
to discharge debts due to them, a suggestion which was, however, of doubtful
foundation. The King was much concerned to assure Sir A. Ryan that the
leading member of the family, who is Vice-President of his Legislative Council,
had nothing to do with their business enterprises, but he gave much personal
attention to the affair. In due course it was decided to set up a special commission
under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of the Governor of Jedda to examine the firm’s position
with a view to the liquidation of their affairs. This decision was, with the
assistance of the Legation, advertised in India, where bankruptcy proceedings
had already been instituted. The work of the special commission was still
proceeding at the end of the year.
(10) European Cemetery in Jedda.
216. The British Legation remained in charge of this cemetery during
1931, but was unable, owing to pressure of more immediate affairs, to carry out
the programme of reform outlined in paragraph 202 of the annual report for 1930.
By the end of the year, the matter had become urgent, not only because the
condition of the cemetery was as deplorable as ever, but because the proceeds of
the last collection made to meet the expenses of upkeep were exhausted. It was
hoped to make a more successful effort early in 1932 to place the cemetery on a
sound basis.
(11) Jedda Club.
217. For reasons which have since lost their force, a disproportionate
amount of space was given to this institution in the annual report for 1930. The
club continued to exist in theory throughout 1931, a bright example of solvency
in these dismal days, rich in trophies, crockery and minor oddments, and the
possessor of a boat, which for at least part of the year was reputed seaworthy,
but almost completely ineffective for the purposes for which it had been
misbegotten, of no interest to the community for which it was supposed to exist
and unlegitimated from the point of view of the Hejazi law which had been found
to apply. At the end of the year His Majesty’s Minister, convinced that it
must be mended or ended, took steps to ascertain the views of the members still
in Jedda. They were unanimous in the view that the club served no useful
purpose. It only remained to arrange for a formal act of suicide. In order to
avoid the necessity for returning to this melancholy subject in the next annual
report, it may here be recorded that at a general meeting held in January 1932
it was decided to wind up the club subject to the completion within a stated
short period of arrangements to redistribute among the original members the
accumulated funds, including the proceeds of sale of various articles of property
and to make the silver cups, &c., available for competitions to be organised under
the auspices of the interested Legations and the committee of the annual Haj
Regatta, as the case might be.