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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎262r] (524/540)

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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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51
[5545] e 2
?
173. The following are the main factors in a very obscure situation :—
{a) Large numbers of slaves of Abyssinian and other African origins are
available on the African side of the southern entrance to the Red Sea, as a result
of the lawlessness and occasional warfare in the regions not effectively controlled
^by the French and Italians or lying outside their dependencies. The cost to the
trader on the African coast is put at from £1 to £2 a head in cases where the
slaves are acquired by purchase.
(b) The slaves are exported mainly, it would appear, from places on the
coast of French Somaliland, from Tajura northwards, and there may be a certain
export from Eritrea. The measures taken by the French authorities to prevent
the trade are either inefficient or, in the opinion of many, half-hearted, even in
places where they are in a position to exercise real control. There is less reason
to reproach the Italian authorities, but in one respect their attitude is open to
definite criticism, for they continue to allow the shipment of pilgrims by dhows
from Massowah to the Hejaz, notwithstanding the promise given by them in 1928
to prohibit this (see paragraph 160). The pilgrim dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. is a potential means of
smuggling slaves who cannot be identified as such, though it is improbable that
many slaves are, in fact, transported in this way.
(c) The maritime control of the traffic devolves almost entirely on His
Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, who maintain two sloops in the
Red Sea, mainly for this purpose and that of preventing illicit arms traffic. The
French and Italian? theoretically contribute their quota of naval effort, but such
small use as they make of sloops in the Red Sea is directed to other objects. French
sloops belonging to the naval division in the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. pay occasional visits, but they
do not carry out any patrolling. An Italian sloop based on Massowah is said to
be used more for survey work than for patrols and spends a great part of its time
in port.
(d) The operations of the British sloops are surrounded by every kind of
difficulty owing to the greatness of the area for which they are responsible, the
nature of the waters at the southern end of the Red Sea, and the lack of an efficient
intelligence system working in collaboration with the navy. This last is an
element of great importance, for it pays the slavers on their side to maintain what
is said to be an efficient intelligence service of their own. No captures of slavers
have been effected for many years. It is sometimes inferred that the sloops serve
no useful purpose as regards the restraint of slave traffic. This view is probably
erroneous. There is no doubt that naval control, even though confined within the
narrow limits imposed by the difficulties inherent in the task of the sloops and by
considerations of economy, is a deterrent if only because it prevents any large-
scale shipment of slaves and the slavers are thrown back on the employment of
small, swift dhows, run with every precaution to carry small parties.
(e) The institution of slavery is prevalent throughout Arabia. In Hejaz-
Nejd, as opposed to certain regions outside the scope of this report, where a form
of plantation slavery is said to exist, the demand is for what may be roughly
described as slaves for luxury purposes like the use of girls and women as wives
or concubines and various forms of personal service, which attach the slaves to the
household or immediate entourage of the owner. It is impossible to estimate the
total number of slaves or to say to what extent the supply is kept up by repro
duction of slave stock in the country and by importation respectively. The
market value of slaves is high, and it has been said that a good-looking adolescent
girl will fetch as much as £80. This figure cannot be vouched for, but it affords
an indication of the profit which may accrue from the successful running of slaves.
In the main the condition of slaves once settled in their servitude would appear to
be not unhappy and to be favourably affected by the legal safeguards which
distinguish slavery, as practised in more or less civilised Islamic countries, from
the old plantation slavery, the character of which first aroused the moral sense
of Europe to the turpitude of slavery as an institution as distinct from the horrors
of enslavement and slave traffic.
(/) As stated elsewhere, Ibn Baud bound himself by article 7 of the Treaty of
Jedda “ to co-operate by all means at his disposal with His Britannic Majesty in
the suppression of the slave trade.” He showed in 1930 the most complete
reluctance to enter into a similar commitment vis-a-vis France and Italy.
Whatever he has done or left undone to implement his obligation under the Treaty
of Jedda, he shows no inclination whatsoever to put an end to slavery inside his

About this item

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.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎262r] (524/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2085, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036362872.0x00007d> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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