Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎33r] (66/802)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
July 27, 1937.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
/
[E 4331/580/25]
Copy No. Ill
Mr. Trott to Mr. Eden.—(Received July 27.)
(No. 123.)
Sir,
I HAVE the honour to submit herewith the Jedda report for June 1937.
2 . Copies have been distributed as in the list in paragraph 67.
Jedda, July 1, 1937.
I have, &c.
(For the Minister),
A. C. TROTT.
Enclosure.
Jedda Report for June 1937.
I .—Internal Affairs.
237. Ibn Saud has remained at Riyadh throughout the month. r I he
movements of the Amirs Saud and Muhammad in England, and the minor opera
tions they have undergone, have been fully recorded in the Mecca press, which fixes
their departure for home via Paris for the beginning of July.
238. Fuad Bey is still in Riyadh. Another Syrian, who holds a senior post
in Jedda, told a member of the Legation staff that Fuad was in very bad odour
with the King, who suspected him of receiving money from the Italians and was
keeping him at Riyadh out of harm’s way. Asad-al-Faqih, after spending two
or three weeks in Jedda as the local embodiment of the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, disappeared without warning in the direction of Taif. The only difference
this makes is that you now receive replies from that office in Arabic, instead of
French, to the effect that nothing whatever is known about the matter, but enquiry
will be made. The Saudi Ministry for Foreign Affairs have maintained on
various occasions, as a circumstance extenuating their absence in Mecca or Taif,
that an urgent message from a foreign mission would always be sent to the
Minister for Foreign Affairs by a special car. This boast was put to the test this
month, when an urgent communication from His Majesty’s Minister required to
be sent, and, after being badgered for some two hours, the authorities in Jedd'a
did, in fact, produce a car to take it to Taif.
239. Ibn Baud’s “Back to Religion” proclamation (paragraph 202) was
followed up by two regulations tending in the same direction. The first was an
order, issued through the town crier, forbidding Moslems to shave the beard.
Employees of foreign missions in Jedda are apparently not expected to comply
with this order, and the Netherlands Charge d’Affaires has been assured by the
authorities that the regulation is not applicable to foreigners. Towards the end
of the month information was received from certain British subjects in Mecca
that the order was being enforced against foreigners, some British subjects having
been fined and imprisoned. The Legation are taking up the question. The second
regulation, which was issued by the Ministry of Finance, prohibits the importation
or sale of what were at first supposed to be statuettes, but turn out to be any
representation in three dimensions of a living creature, from Mustafa Kemal to
a rabbit. It seems that children have been found playing with dolls in Mecca.
It seems strange that a ruler who allows photography in his realm and has even
permitted a film of the pilgrimage to be taken for exhibition in Egypt should
boggle at teddy-bears, since drawings and the making of three-dimensional figures
are alike forbidden by the religious authorities. But perhaps the responsibilitv
for photographs, which are the effect of light, can be shuffled off on to Allah.
240. According to information from a good source, there was this much
justification for Ibn Baud’s annoyance at the formation of the Society of the
[55 dd—1]