File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎430r] (864/898)

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rescued pilgrims were landed the first and second-class passengers were
i ete . m the King s Jeddah palace and entertained there, and the deck passengers
were grven food. Ihe agent of Messrs. Nemazi, who is also Kaimakam of Jeddah, was
prepared to do everything necessary for the pilgrims for the sake of the firm’s reputa-
ai h ( ^ own, but was forbidden by the King. It is probable, however, that he was
Jowed to pay for the King’s hospitality. To ensure that the pilgrims should have no
j ouble, either about passports or about deposits, on the return journey, and as a general
precaution, it was necessary to provide them with certificates stating that they were
passengers by theFrangestan.” This scheme was wrecked by the refusal of the King
to instruct the guides to bring the pilgrims to the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. . The usual reply was given :
. e pilgrims aie free to come if they wish.” The King changed his mind later and
issued the necessary instructions, but by that time all but about thirty of the people
concerned had left for Mecca. So immediately after the pilgrimage, when some 10,000
pilgrims are fighting to get away within a few days, we shall have hundreds of pilgrims
asserting that they came by the “ Frangestan,” and wanting certificates.
On the 25th April news was received that the Hashimite steamer “ Tawil ” was
aground on a reef about 90 miles north of Jeddah. All the Jeddah officials seemed
greatly agitated, but it was not until the passengers and crew had been disembarked
and the “Tawil” towed off by a Khedivial boat that the cause of the agitation was
made plain. . On the “ Tawil ” were the first sixty pilgrims travelling to Jeddah by the
much-advertised new route via Ma an and Akaba. The promised motor-car service to
Akaba has not yet begun, and when, on top of a camel journey, the pilgrims had to
spend twenty-four hours on a reef in peril of their lives, they may have wished they had
chosen some other route. No lives were lost, and the “Tawil” was, unhappily, not
damaged. I say £< unhappily without malice. It might have done the King some
good if the ship had been badly damaged. He has bought another and larger steamer
and is about to purchase yet another, and it is said that he intends to use these new
vessels for Basra and Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. pilgrims ; and it is to be feared that if ships
so incompetently and corruptly managed as everything connected with the Hedjaz must
be are used for long voyages with large numbers of pilgrims on board, some great
disaster may occur.
It now appears that the French authorities in Syria have really forbidden pilgrims
to travel between Syria and the Hedjaz by land on the ground that there are no
adequate arrangements for quarantine except on the sea route. This order was issued
before King Hussein decided to establish a quarantine station at Ma’an, but the French
authorities might be excused if they still preferred the arrangements at Tor to any that
the Hedjaz may make. If it were properly managed, the Ma’an-Akaba route to Jeddah
would be better for pilgrims than the route through Egypt, but I fear it cannot be
claimed that it will be as safe from the point of view of public health. The Palestine
Government very kindly lent an official to advise King Hussein where and how a
quarantine station on the Hedjaz Railway could best be established; but most of the
virtue in public health work depends on competent and conscientious administration, and
the Hedjaz simply does not stock that kind of administration. The same consideration
shows-how worthless was King Hussein’s statement that he was prepared to listen to
suggestions for the improvement of the quarantine arrangements at Jeddah. Setting
aside the fact, that the King never really listens to any suggestion unless it promises to
put money in his pocket or to make someone unhappy (it will be remembered that he
ignored completely the recommendations of the Egyptian expert who came to examine
the financial situation of the Hedjaz), it is sufficient, in order to show that no serious
improvements in Jeddah quarantine arrangements is to be expected, to mention that
the Director-General of Quarantine (and of Health Services) is a Turk of the ignorant,
obstructionist type, blatantly corrupt, openly xenophobe, and completely callous to
human suffering. This man is naturally King Hussein’s most trusted servant and
familiar.
According to the Mecca press, four trainloads of Egyptian and Italian pilgrims have
returned to Ma’an from Medina. The King is credited with the hope of sending large
numbers of pilgrims to Medina, after the great day of the pilgrimage, via Jeddah,
Akaba, Ma’an and the railway, so that the dangerous routes from Mecca or Jeddah
direct to Medina may be avoided. Such a journey, roundabout as it would be, would
probably be cheaper and less painful than the long camel journey by the ordinary route
with its inevitable delays, tolls and robberies; but all depends on the efficiency of the
Hedjaz Railway from Ma’an to Medina. One is inclined to be sceptical about this still,
in spite of the boasted arrival of four trains at Ma’an, the more so as the Hedjaz
authorities have written to this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. to complain that the Palestine administration