File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎334r] (672/898)

thtt^plotecftfarr^e in , a PP^ble time before the “ Jehangir ”
of the pilgrims not to be baulked of°thefr pilgrLTg^tnd t^n^urlfde 6 ™^?^ 11
captain and owners not to have their shin seized anrl 6 n 5 tl J al desire of the
the blockade. On the 17th June, although authltfc n°° n f ° r ^ to run
Rabigh had still not been received the & captain left Pm-f '4 'i "' e ^ aot sl pation at
about this time H.M.S. ‘ Cornflower ’’ act^nf on t Sudan I {°rK»bigh. At
Government at the request of the Government of Indh^ cm Npf SS 'i' e p b |“ - Ma j est 7 s
the conditions there. The commanding officer called on thl caota^oflt °
to find out what his instructions were, and found that whatever the° were tWdid
not include the duty of stopping British pilgrim ships from entering the harbour
the “ V' 81 ' 6 Lhe harDour pilgrim ships could not be followed bv
, .. f 11 ',, * mc ®entrance is so narrow that it could easily be guarded against
1 because the^e ^Tne" wfh°b ly With rifl V f ° r which ^-" doubtlesS
sambuks m harbour (a fifth crept in at dawn befo& he lei™that pil*™ sZscouW
approach much nearer to the shore than at Jeddah, and that the Wahabis had made
CorXwer “fhe^ grimS tak P S , them to Mecca. By the vmt
01 Oorntlower the fear was dissipated that the “ Tawil ” could do at
Rabigh what she could do at Jeddah, and, I believe, at anv other point on the Hediaz
coast, viz he between the much larger pilgrim ships and the shore and capture 3 or
Sim! y T“wt m the S rfor re an y.Hedjaz dhows pdting off from the shoA land
Te^h in :lu therefore possible for Commander Wickham, after discussion at
Jeddah to send reassuring messages to the “ Jehangir ” and the “ Goriistan ” the
^ Ste’ h K -Comtow.r » went t.ek » E S“d ,tld
i tL lSrd JnV, P ’' “ >“*• * Tin.
of wV' lan i 0pe T tionS thr 1 eatened b y the Hed J az Government in their letter
oi the 1st June, though not entirely bluff, did not threaten Eabigh seriously. The
Hedj az forces at Yambo—mainly tribal—did, however, succeed in capturing Badr,
a iway between Yambo and Eabigh and astride one of the routes to Medina, and
ttie King was hoping as late as the 25th June that they would take Eabigh before the
stores landed from the pilgrim ships had been removed to Mecca.
p i • iA r S d ^ cu ^ to understand the Hadjaz Government’s policy in regard to*
a i ‘ am lncdl ^ed to think that they were too vague as to what a blockade
-any means to be able to act with consistency and firmness. The Foreign Secretary
was always trying to get from me a definition of what His Maiesty’s Government
would consnier an ‘ c effective ” blockade, so that he might act on it! On about the
« T dune, ^ the Government were seriously discussing whether, now that the
i e ganger pilgrims had been kept roasting at Port Sudan for ten days, they
snould not allow them to go to Mecca via Jeddah, but the Syrian military party, who
eventually carried the day, were against it and voted for the full rigours of the
ockade at Eabigh. Moreover, on the 18th, the Foreign Secretary could still write
° . 'm a ° enc y sa y in g that the landing of goods at Eabigh would be prevented by all
possible means and that every [ ? Hedjaz] boat or dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. appearing in harbour would
e captured or sunk. Yet, when the pilgrim steamers went to Eabigh nothing was
one to them. However, the FXedjaz Government now console themselves by saying
hat Hhs Majesty s Government forced the blockade by sending a warship against
vhich they were of course powerless. The King was particularly reproachful about
he large quantity of stores which he said had been landed from the pilgrim ships.
10. At the beginning of June there was a considerable number of British
pdgnms who had drifted to Jeddah by various routes, e.g., Nigerians who arrived
ast year just too late for the Hajj, a few Malays who had come months before via
Kangoon and India, &c. Some of these managed to get away in dhows, which,
under an arrangement winked at by the authorities immediately concerned, landed
them a few miles further down the coast, but there were still left those who could
not find dhows or could not pay the cost, and the number was swelled during tho
month by the arrival from Akaba and Yambo on Hedjaz Government steamers, of
Indian and other pilgrims who had travelled by way of Palestine. At the request of
this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. the King agreed, almost at the last moment, to let them pass through the
lines, and they left on the 26th June, still in time for the pilgrimage. The King gave
as a reason for letting them go, that they were genuine pilgrims and not political
emissaries sent by the Indian Caliphate Committee, like the people on the
[1004 p—2] B 2