Coll 6/10 'Hejaz-Nejd Affairs: Financial Situation and Internal Situation' [24r] (54/1310)
The record is made up of 1 volume (649 folios). It was created in 21 Jun 1928-26 Aug 1938. 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. .
Transcription
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a 4. x VS * ,
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
Section 2.
[E 662/662/25]
St? R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received February 4.)
remarkable even for Saudi laws, is probably the compiler’s own. To mention
only one instance : An employee who was paid 39£ Saudi riyals a month would
escape the dehnitions in sections 4 and 5, and thus his employer would not be
liable in respect of any accident that happened to him in the course of his work.
Some of the other points where the drafting is defective are indicated in square
brackets.
3. Judged by the standards of this country, the rates of compensation are
extraordinarily high, e.g., £450 gold for permanent total disablement of a skilled
workman. It is quite right that wealthy foreign companies should pay adequate
compensation in such cases, and I am far from suggesting that the rates, regarded
absolutely, are too high; but they are enormously greater than anything the
Saudi Government would pay. Moreover, it is not certain that the victim or his
next-of-kin would receive the full amount paid by the company. This doubt is
founded upon the knowledge that the companies to whom this regulation applies
are required by the terms of concessions to pay in gold for certain personnel who
do not, in fact, receive salary at those rates. For instance, the Petroleum
Development (Western Arabia) (Limited) have to pay to the Saudi Government
£500 gold per annum in respect of the supervision of their concession by Najib
Salha, and £20 gold per mensem for an “ inspector ” of very low status who is
supposed to watch the drilling on the Farsan Islands. It is to be hoped that the
analogy I have drawn is not sound and that the full compensation will go to
the victim or his next-of-kin. but a little scepticism is permissible.
4. The provision most open to objection is contained in article 20, which
makes the regulation retrospective. It was partly on this account, though also
on account of the high rates of compensation, that the Jedda manager of the
Petroleum Development (Western Arabia) (Limited) proposed to his principals
that the regulation should be resisted; they, however, instructed him to take no
action. The California Arabian Standard Oil Company, it is believed, have
asked their principals for instructions. It is inevitable that in the end all
companies concerned will accept the regulation without protest. It is inevitable
that this poverty-stricken country should try to make money out of the few
foreign concessions in various ways, and it will not pay any of the companies to
enter into controversy unless larger sums are at stake than are invoked in the
application of this regulation. . . .
^ T am spnrhncr a coov of this despatch and enclosuie to the Piincipal
[230 d—2]
About this item
- Content
This volume largely consists of copies of Foreign Office correspondence, which have been forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India. The correspondence, most of which is between Foreign Office officials and either the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) or His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, succeeded by Albert Spencer Calvert), relates to financial and political matters in the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia).
The correspondence discusses the following:
- The history of the Wahabi movement and Ibn Saud's [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd's] attitude towards Wahabism.
- The currency exchange crisis in the Hejaz.
- Requests from Ibn Saud for the British Government either to assist in establishing a British bank as a state bank in the Hejaz, or to provide a loan directly to the Hejazi Government (both requests are declined).
- The British Minister at Jedda's accounts of his meetings both with Ibn Saud and with various Hejazi/Saudi Government officials.
- A Hejazi-Soviet contract for the supply of Soviet benzine and relations between Soviet Russia and Hejaz-Nejd generally.
- Tensions within the Hejazi Government.
- The Hejazi Government's budgetary reforms.
- The prospect of a new Saudi state bank, possibly backed by the financial assistance of the former ex-Khedive of Egypt [ʿAbbās Ḥilmī II].
- The death of Emir Abdullah ibn Jiluwi [‘Abdullāh bin Jilūwī Āl Sa‘ūd].
- Saudi-Egyptian relations.
- The discovery of oil in Hasa.
In addition to correspondence the volume includes the following:
- A copy of an economic survey of Saudi Arabia, produced by the British Legation at Jedda in June 1936.
- A copy of a note written by Frederick Gerard Peake, Commanding Officer of the Arab Legion, on the history of the Wahabi movement.
- A copy of a printed Government of India report entitled 'Confidential Report of the Haj Inquiry Committee on the Arrangements in the Hedjaz', dated 1930.
- A copy of a report by the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Vincent Biscoe), recounting a visit to Ibn Saud at Hasa in early 1932.
- Copies of extracts from Kuwait intelligence summaries and Bahrain intelligence reports.
The volume includes three dividers, which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (649 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 651; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers. A previous foliation sequence, which is present between ff 563-649 and is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2074
- Title
- Coll 6/10 'Hejaz-Nejd Affairs: Financial Situation and Internal Situation'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:7v, 10r:30v, 33r:39r, 41r:72v, 77r:86r, 87r:93v, 95r:110v, 112r:116v, 118r:119v, 121r:128v, 130r:140v, 142r:142v, 144r:164v, 166r:168v, 170r:187v, 189r:268v, 270r:274v, 277r:281v, 283r:291r, 293r:303v, 305r:306r, 307r:342v, 352r:362v, 365r:366v, 372r:376v, 384r:386v, 388r:405v, 407r:417v, 419r:422v, 425r:443v, 445r:459v, 467r:468v, 471r:478v, 482r:490v, 492r:531v, 533r:617v, 624r:651v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence