"ملف 8/15 سلسلة الجزيرة العربية - ١٩٣٣-١٩٣٩" [و‎‎٩‎٥] (٤٣٤/١٨٩)

Enclosure 5 to Serial No. (33).
Demi-official letter from Mr. R. S. Champion, Political Secretary, Aden to
Mr. Max Nurock, Chief Secretary's Office, Palestine, No. 0.1189 dated
the 23rd of March 1932.
AVith reference to your demi-official letter No. I.|552|31 of the 31st January
1932 regarding the national status of Jews in the Yemen, 1 have made a number
of independent enquiries from my Agents in that country, and from Jews of
A emem stock in Aden, one of whom is a well-known and prosperous merchant of
San’a.
The following information will serve, not only to answer your specific ques-
• lion, but to give you an impression of the social position of the Imam’s Jewish
subjects :—
(a) .There is no formal Nationality Law in the Yemen, the national status
of the inhabitants of which is regulated by custom or by the Imam’s
decree.
(/>) Jews born or having their permanent resident in the Imam’s terri
tories, and not having other nationality, are considered to be his
subjects. I presume that foreign nationals residing in the Yemen
and their children born in the Yemen do not lose their foreign
nationality save by their own act, in the absence of specific Yemeni
law in that respect. This question has, as far as I know, never been
tested.
(c) The Imam appears to be reluctant to allow his Jewish subjects to
emigrate. If the prospective emigrant is poor and owns no pro
perty he is obliged to provide a surety against his return ; if he
owns property he must transfer it to administration by the Imam
and can recover it on his return to the country. There is a special
department in San’a for the administration of such trust estates.
(d) The Jewish subjects of the Imam between the ages of 13 and 60, and
male, pay a poll tax annually. The tax is assessed in three grades,
of M. T. dollars 4, 2 or 1, in accordance with the financial status of
the tax-payer. No other direct tax is levied on Jews. Customs
duties are levied irrespective of race or creed.
(e) There is a Rabbinical Court in San’a with jurisdiction in disputes
between Jews, but such cases may also be heard bv a Moslem Qadhi
specially appointed for the purpose. “ Mixed ” cases go to the
Shar’ia Court, where however (I am informed) Jewish evidence
against a Moslem is not accepted.
(/) Jews in the Yemen are permitted to manufacture and consume
“ arak ” and wine in Jewish quarters, but are prohibited from
selling or distributing such liquor to Moslems. (In this connection
cf. Aden Political Intelligence Summary, paragraph 1858.)
(g) Jewish children, having no parents or other relations and no means
of support, are collected and absorbed into the Moslem Orphanage
in San’a where they grow up as Moslems without distinction from
their fellow orphans. I do not know the method of their conversion
nor at what stage it is effected. And although there was at one
time a good deal of talk about it in Jewish circles here, I do not
think that _ the system, objectionable as it must be to Jewish
susceptibilities, has been accompanied by undue compulsion or
deliberate disregard of evidence.
(h) Jews in the Yemen are subject to certain traditional disabilities relat
ing to the wearing of silken garments (except on holidays in their
own quarters) ; the riding of horses, or of mules and asses except
pn journeys, and then only sideways ; and to behaviour when pass
ing or accompanying Moslems.
I am under the general impression that the life of Jews in the Yemen, while
it is subject to many disabilities and prohibitions, which, however repugnant to
the more enlightened of them and to western ideas, have long been established
by tradition and custom, is not unhappy and need not be unprosperous. The
present Imam is tolerant to them and lends a ready ear to their complaints. The
Crown Prince ” Seif A1 Islam Ahmed, may be less so when he succeeds, but
they have friends among the other Princes.
Most of the foregoing is irrelevant to your question, and much of it may be
old news, but I send it to you for what it is worth.