مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎٧‎٢] (٥٤٠/٣٤٥)

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(d) The question of chauffeurs is more delicate, as it cannot on principle be
claimed that British subjects have a right to exercise any profession
in Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, there are no published
regulations, and sudden refusals to renew licences in favour of
foreigners unwilling to accept Saudi nationality create hardship,
aggravated in some cases by the fact that the persons concerned have
claims against the Government, Government-controlled companies and
other transporters for arrears of wages. The Government stated
officially to the Legation in July that they could not employ foreigners
in cars used for military purposes. Up to the end of the year the
question dragged on confusedly, the Legation being unable to take
any strong line, while the Government oscillated between sporadic
attempts to enforce their rules and the temptation to employ
foreigners all the same, owing to the demand for transport in
connexion with military preparations against the Yemen. This
question affects a wider range of persons than Africans, as Asiatics
also, including Indians and Malays, make their living as chauffeurs.
Clerical Visits.
180. Two offers by clergymen of the Church of England to visit Jedda to
minister to the needs of the British community caused His Majesty’s Minister to
enquire of Fuad Bey Hamza in July what the attitude of the Saudi Government
would be if a British clergyman wished to come to Jedda occasionally to hold a
service in the Legation. The reply was categorical. Fuad Bey said that no non-
Moslem minister of religion could be admitted to the Hejaz in any circumstances;
not even as an ordinary traveller not intending to act in a clerical capacity. His
Majesty’s Government held that this attitude, however lamentable, could not be
contested. The firmness with which it is held by the Saudi Government is proved
by an article in the Tablet of the 6th January, 1934. describing how a priest on
board a visiting ship was refused permission to land. Incidentally, the ship,
according to the Tablet, would appear to have groped its way into the Jedda roads
in the utmost ignorance as to the waters it was approaching. It could easily have
had a pilot from the shore. Only sky-pilots are barred.
AlFadhl (Alfazal) Case.
181. Some account of this case was given in paragraph 215 of the report for
1931 and paragraph 178 of that for 1932. The difficulty in placing the books of
the firms in India at the disposal of the Saudi Liquidation Commission having
been overcome, and a representative of the Imperial Bank of Persia having spent
quite a long time in Jedda, the commission reported in April 1933. Up to the end
of the year, however, the Saudi Government had not announced any decision.
European Cemetery in Jedda.
182. A certain amount was done in 1933 to carry out the programme
outlined in paragraph 202 of the report for 1930. The British Legation remained
in charge. The wall and the caretaker’s hovel were to some extent repaired, and
the enclosure was cleaned up in July. A plan was drawn up and a fair amount
of material was collected for a historical record which it is hoped to complete
in 1934. The Legation records with gratitude its appreciation of the sympathetic
help received from the Imperial War Graves Commission and its representatives
in Egypt. The commission reproduced the plan and gave material assistance in
the effort to put together the meagre information regarding the past of the
cemetery. Its representatives in Egypt have interested themselves in a scheme for
a very modest plantation to relieve the lamentable bareness of the cemetery. It
will never be anything but a place of desolation, but, if the present efforts are
sustained, it will cease to be a disgrace to Europe in the East.
Bibliography.
183. Three books of importance in connexion with Saudi Arabia were
published in 1933, viz., Mr. Philby's The Empty Quarter, describing his
expedition to the Rub-al-Khali in 1932; Mr. Kenneth Williams’s Ibn Saud; and