File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎220r] (444/898)

in paragraphs 11 and 12 of last month s report, hurther details of the movement
show that there is m Nejd a loosely associated group of men who, formerly Ibn Sand’s
friends and lieutenants, will not be satished merely to devote the rest of their lives
to the uncritical obedience of his behests. Among these independent spirits are
Snereef lyhalid-bin-Mansour, Grovernor of laraba and Khurma, who was instrumental
Teapturing Taif and Mecca from the Hashimite forces in 1924; Sheikh Sultan-bin-
Bijad, of the Ateioah, associated with Khalid in the above exploits* and Sheikh
Feisal-el-Derwish, principal sheikh of the Mutair, perhaps the best known of the
Nejdian sheikhs, who commanded for Ibn Sand for a time before Medina. In
sympathy to a certain extent with these former allies and present subjects of the
King is said to be the hmir Mohammed, Ibn Saud s own brother. He is married
to a daughter of one of them, Sultan-bin-Bijad, and his independence of character
is m harmony with theirs. He was up to a short time ago in Riyadh. Ibn Sand’s
long absence in the Hejaz and their own unemployment in Nejd have furnished these
chiefs with the time to formulate and the opportunity to discuss their grievances.
It is not supposed here that they are ready to betray the King or that they have
ceased to respect his authority, but they are frankly critical. Their attitude was
one of the urgent reasons which took Ibn Saud back to Riyadh. From all accounts
the King knows well how, by a combination of the generosity and firmness associated
with his name, to keep his turbulent friends in Nejd in check. It becomes again
strikingly apparent how personal a matter is the homogeneity of the dominion of
Nejd and Hejaz.
12. If tribal affairs are the chief preoccupation of the moment, there are signs
that the next big problem to be developed will be the question of Asir. Newspaper
reports of the conversations in Rome between Sir Gilbert Clayton and Commendatore
Gasperini, negotiator of the Italo-Yemen Treaty, have not been lost on the local
authorities. They give the impression of resenting the feared intrusion into the
politics of Asir of any Power other than the Yemen and themselves, and are
apprehensive as to what Italian intentions in South-West Arabia are.
13. Reference has been made above to the Jeddah-Port Sudan cable. The
agreement defining the terms of its joint ownership by the Sudan and Hejaz Govern
ments was signed for the Hejaz Government on the 18th December, 1926, and by the
Governor-General of the Sudan in January. Subsequently, the working agreement
confiding the operation of the cable to the Eastern Telegraph Company was similarly
completed by the signatures of the Sudan Government and of the operating company.
Early in February the Eastern Telegraph Company’s ship “ Mirror ” carried out the
repair work necessary on the cable in Jeddah roadstead, and by the 15th February
cable communication with Port Sudan was definitely re-established.
14. Dr. Weiss, German Minister in Abyssinia, arrived in Jeddah on the
18th February and stayed with the Dutch consul until the 25th February, when he
left for Port Sudan on his way back to Addis Ababa. The purpose of his tour in
the Red Sea area may be conjectured as a cursory commercial and political enquiry
suggested to his Government by recent British and Italian activities. Dr. Weiss
said he thought it would be wrong to conclude that the whole trade of the Temen
would now fall into Italian hands, and did not see why British and German enter
prise should not have a share in it also. He quoted as an instance that in six months
the Italian monopoly of the supply of kerosene to Hodeida would fall in, and thought
that there was no special reason for its being renewed to an Italian firm.
15. It has been surprising to find to what extent local interest has been aroused
in the Chinese question, and more especially in the British attitude to it. Hankow
and Shanghai have been discussed among the merchants of Jeddah and the citizens
of Mecca with far more feeling than one would be led by the money-making pre
occupations of the ones and the piety-mongering of the others to suppose likely.
Even the official “ Umm-el-Kura ” considered itself entitled to publish a leading
article on the situation, and did so in quite accurate and friendly terms. But there
is, in fact, little room to be surprised at such an interest, a sign of the times. What
could be more natural than that, in the one metropolis in the world (excepting the
remoter Lhasa), from wdiich Europe is definitely excluded, where Kashghari, Tartar,
Javanese, Indian, Syrian and Moroccan meet with the sons of Ham and the sons of
Shem, talk should fix on fundamental problems of the day deeply affecting, whether
he realises it or not, each one of the disputants ?
16. The “ Umm-el-Kura ” of the 15th contained the following official
notification :—
“ The newspaper £ A1 Ahram’ published in its number of the 28th November,
1926. an article taken from the ' Journal des Debats entitled Javanese