Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎250r] (500/540)

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3R
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79. Apart from this external question of the Hejaz-Asir-Yemen complex,
Italy has few interests in Hejaz-Nejd. Outside the consulate there are
but few Italian subjects in dedda. An Italian firm in Egypt maintains an
agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. at the head of which is an Italianate British subject. An independent
business is carried on by a motor-car mechanic and importer of Fiat cars,
^fcho in the autumn followed that other importer of cars, Mr. Philby, into the
Islamic fold and now rejoices in the name of Salih Delicata.
(4) The Netherlands.
80. Holland has no political interest in Hejaz-Nejd, but is more concerned
than any other Power except Great Britain with the pilgrimage, which normally
brings very large numbers of pilgrims from the Dutch East Indies to the Holy
Places. On the average these are among the more prosperous pilgrims and their
national habit is to make a prolonged stay in the Hejaz. Arising out of this
pilgrimage connexion, the Dutch have two important commercial establishments
in Jedda, each of which has several European employees. It results from this
that commercially and as a settled European colony, the Dutch are second only
to the British.
81. The Netherlands Government make all their arrangements in Jedda
with reference to the pilgrimage. They have an elaborate system whereby their
representative and his assistants are specially trained members of their East
Indian service, appointed to Jedda for a definite term and overlapping for set
periods. In May 1930 they transformed their consulate into a Legation with the
existing consul as Charge d’Affaires en litre. The change was purely technical,
made without either reluctance or enthusiasm, to bring the Netherlands into
line with other Powers which had gratified Ibn Sand's desire for properly
accredited diplomatic representatives. It was apparently decided late in 1930
to make the Hejaz-Nejd Minister in London Minister at The Hague also, with
a resident Charge d’Affaires to represent him. It was understood early in 1931
that this was held up over questions of finance.
(5) Soviet Russia.
82. The U.S.S.R is the only country besides Great Britain which maintains
a Minister in the Hejaz. The Minister, Nezir Bey Touracoulov, who had been
in Jedda perviously as agent and consul-general, presented his letters of credence
to the Emir Feisal, in the King's absence, on the 26th February, 1930. He is a
Moslem from Turkestan. The Soviets showed few signs during the year of any
special political interest in Hejaz-Nejd, and their principal activity in Arabia
appears to be concentrated on the Yemen. Their Minister in Jedda makes no
sort of splash. They are sometimes credited with maintaining unofficial
connexions in Mecca, and one notorious Indian agitator, who has certainly had
a close connexion with them in the past, figures as a religious teacher there. In
a conversation with Sir A. Ryan in June, Ibn Saud disavowed any official
relationship between the Hejazi Government and this person, and offered either
himself to watch him or to allow Sir A. Ryan to take his own measures to do so.
There is little or no evidence of any definite policy on the part of the Soviets of
tampering with pilgrims. Their ships engaged in the Red Sea trade make Jedda
a port of call once a month or so. Jhere is no Russian colony, but the Legation
staff includes a doctor, who enjoys some distinction as a bacteriologist, a fact
which gives him a certain importance in the little world of Jedda.
(6) Germany.
83. Ratifications were exchanged in Cairo on the 6th November, 1930, of a
Treaty of Friendship concluded between the Reich and Ibn Saud at the same
place on the 26th April, 1929. This treaty provides for the eventual exchange
of diplomatic and consular representatives; for the admission of the subjects of
each country to the territory of the other in accordance with the principles of
international law and “ in conformity with its known necessities,’' most-favoured
nation treatment being accorded; and for reciprocal most-fayoured-nation
treatment of ships and cargoes and of goods imported for consumption, tranship
ment or transit.
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