File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎43v] (91/898)

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■ r. i,,i - ■) 1 ready been appointed, and only
who is to examine the claims in this connexio n in his work
awaits (he opportunity of meeting him “ order “ Ibrahim _bin-Arfa3 to the
6. The King has notified the despat t te and settle certain question
vicinity of the Koweit and Iraq frontiers to Thls ennssary has neC
outstanding between Nejd tribes in t v .p^- a rdins looting, &c., which may ne
instructed to deal with an y frontier 8 a uthonties, and to report to these
received from the Iraq or ^^^"kion that may be committed against Nqd.
authorities, if necessary any acts of aggress ig far from reassuring. I he
7. The financial situation of the ] , eturns up t0 date, are likely to
revenues for the pilgrimage, judgmgby M ^ the Government appears to be
fall considerably short or expectations. “ rd of liabilities already incurred.
contemplating fresh expenditure with a fane dp^ ^ 5 ce „ t . to 10 per cent
Drafts on the customs can occasionally be neg^^ consignments of merchandise but
discount, in anticipation or tea i Government itself is issuing these
it is no easy matter to encash their value. all intents a nd purposes forced
drafts to local merchants as security for v hat ^ ^ the amounts of the drafts
loans. Although no interest as such is paia which represents m effect, the
as a rule exceed the sums loaned ^ an - the money. The Governor of
equivalent of 8 per cent to 10 per cent i £5,000, and it is said that
Jedda himself was recently hand over ^ ^ & £20,000
the total sums loaned by nim to the x* | , f . reDreS entative of the Ministry of
To make the general situation woree, ‘he J , bg held at the King’s
Finance has been instructed to collect a sum ot fc»u,u ,
disposal immediately after t^e pi grimage. d’Affaires communicated to the
8. On the 13th April His which has been drawn up
Hejaz Government the text of a dra ^ Heiaz Government last year.
in ^"^ms^arnow arSg'm large numbers The toUl arrival^ by sea
calculated u| to the 13,000
fails by some thousands to fuml e xpe _ • reC orded for the corresponding
are Indians, this figure being o\er > _ " ,, kinds and conditions, lorries for the
" ost’parfare
account ComplaLts are also being received from pilgrims on the ground that on
their wav from Mecca to Medina via Jedda they are detained^ at Jedda sometimes
for as lone as twenty-four hours while their cars undergo a perfunctory examination
before being allowed to proceed. On the whole, though, the pilgrimage is goi g
smoothlv and there has been no serious hitch so far. u A -p
10 ^ ’ An awkward situation arose at the beginning of the month as a result o
the discovery made towards the end of March that spurious Indian currency not s,
apparently of both the 10-rupee and the 100-rupee denominations, were m circulatio
in Jedda 1 This discoverv created something like a panic. The banks and money
changers unable to distinguish with certainty the good from the false notes, retusea
to accept’notes of either denomination. The consequence was that a large number oi
Indians found themselves for a time in great straits for money, and applied tor
assistance. The situation was to some extent relieved through the ettorts or me
British (Indian) vice-consul, who prevailed upon a number of the wealthier Indian
merchants in Jedda and Mecca to accept the notes presented by the pilgrims^ Alter
a further period the manager of the local Dutch bank was also authorised by ms
principals to accept pilgrims’ notes as the percentage of false notes was found to be
small. What might have become a serious crisis was thus, happily, averted.
11. A fire broke out in the offices of the general hospital at Mecca, but it was
apparently extinguished without great difficulty and without damage to persons or
property. The only loss is rumoured to have been the record of certain financial
transactions which might have thrown light on various allegations which are being
made against the director of the hospital himself. _
12. The Soviet steamship C£ Mikoyan ” arrived in Jedda on the 1st April witn
a consignment of 1,000 sacks of sugar destined for a certain Sakka Jemal, a native