Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎5v] (11/802)

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in the display, four being piloted by Saudi flight-lieutenants. Two of the
Saudis flew Italian instructional machines, one the French monoplane, the
Caudron-Renault, and one a three-engined Caproni. None of them, however,
did anything but straight flying of the simplest kind. The two pilot-instructors
also took part in the display, the Russian on the Bellanca and the Italian on a
three-engined Caproni.
477. The “purely formal visit of Mr. Wallace, of the California Texas
Oil Company (paragraphs 396 and 442) ended in his undertaking, after his
interview with Ibn Sand, to supply the Saudi authorities at once with certain
quantities of petrol and other oil products out of stocks now in Kenya. His
story is that this represents an advance on account of quantities which C. A.S.O.C.
will have to supply to the Saudi Government free when the Hasa wells begin
to yield oil in commercial quantities. If this is correct it cannot in all probability
be considered as an infringement of the contract between the Saudi Arabian
Government and Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Company (Sudan), Limited, as
agents for “ Shell” for the supply of all the requirements of the Government,
those of the semi-official motor transport combine included. The area of the
Gellatly, Hankey concession is not mentioned in the contract, but is tacitly
understood to be the Hejaz. Mr. Lenahan represents the oil products from East
Africa as a means of diminishing the Saudi Government's disappointment at the
failure of C.A.S.O.C. to find oil in commercial quantities in Hasa.
478. Dr. Ghulam Mirza Rasul and Sub-Assistant Surgeon Ghulam Husain
were shown the local hospital in Mecca by the Acting Director of Health. Their
report shows that some advance has been effected. The X-Ray Department
seemed to be working satisfactorily under a Syrian trained in Paris, the operating
theatre was clean and tidy, and though the instruments were few they were
at least in glass cupboards, and, moreover, there was a high-pressure steam
steriliser. 1 he surgical cases appeared, however, to be all of a simple type.
There was a modern disinfecting plant for patients’ clothing. About a hundred
patients were waiting in the outdoor dispensary, but there were only eight
patients in the medical ward, and the eye, ear and throat ward was empty owing
to the absence of the doctor in charge. There was a laboratory, also under
a Syrian, which was “ understood to be working properly.”
479. While the establishment of a system of wireless telegraph stations
throughout the country does credit to Ibn Sand's spirit of enterprise and is an
important factor in the maintenance of order, the skill of the operators is not
always equal to the demands of western script, C.A.S.O.C., pending the establish
ment of private wireless communication between Jedda and Hasa, suffer great
inconvenience and sometimes serious delay from this cause, while the Riyadh
wireless route for communication between His Majesty's Embassy in Bagdad
and His Majesty’s Legation in Jedda was found, after a few experiments, to
be hopeless, and had to be abandoned for the more expensive but more accurate
route via Egypt, Confronted with European figures the wireless operator in
Riyadh tended to treat them as boustroph ed onic , but as he was not consistent
even in error the product of his industry was indecipherable.
480. The Saudi authorities have been thrown into consternation bv the death
of the Indian who for years ran the Jedda condenser. This shows the scale on
which the Saudi Government operates. The Minister of Finance, who is in
charge of the condenser as of a hundred other miscellaneous duties, has appealed
to Mr. Gusman, of the Legation staff, for assistance, and the essential service
of the provision of water for Jedda is at present partly dependent upon the
honorary spare-time work of a member of a foreign legation.
481. Heavy rain fell on Christmas day, a few days after the Jedda people,
anxious at the unusual drought, had gone out in procession and prayed for rain.
Even the miserable desert that comes up to the town gates usually produces some
vegetation in winter, but none had appeared this year. The Jedda goats, always
content with waste-paper, have been seen eating strawboard from packing-cases.
482. “ Progress ” is exemplified in a surprising wav by the regular
appearance of advertisements for wireless sets in the Mecca newspaper, Saut-al-
Hejaz. The wireless is still supposed in theory to be used for the reception of
news or readings from the Quran, but these knobs are tricky things. Recently
a car was noticed travelling in the desert near Jedda, crammed with armed
Bedouin retainers of the Governor of Jedda, while from the wireless set inside