This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] EASTERN (ARABIA). [March 29. CONFIDENTIAL. SECTION 1. [E 3387/656/91] Acting Consul Grafftey-Smith to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.-(Received March 29.) (No. 19. Secret.) My Lord, Jeddah, March 10, 1922. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith the Jeddah report for the period the 1st to 10th March, 1922. Copies of this report and despatch have been sent to Cairo, Bagdad, Jerusalem, Aden, Delhi and Transjordania. I have, &c. L. B. GRAFFTEY-SMITH. Enclosure in No. 1. Jeddah Report for the Period March 1-10, 1922. (Secret.) KING HUSSEIN returned suddenly to Mecca on the 2nd March in order to compose the differences of the Beni Zobeid and the Beni Saleim, two sub-tribes of the Masruh, whom he had summoned to Mecca to meet him. He was accompanied by the Emir Zeid. Sheikh Fuad-el-Khatib remained in Jeddah in attendance upon the poet Amin Rihani. On the 1st March King Hussein motored Mr. Rihani out to the village of Ru'is for an evening's entertainment of Bedu dance and song. On the following morning he took him to the Quarantine Islands to inspect Dr. Thabet's quarantine arrangements. It is doubtful which was the more primitive spectacle. From His Majesty's letters to Sheikh Fuad-el-Khatib, written for my perusal, I gather that he is restless, uncertain in his own mind as to how he stands in the eyes of His Majesty's Government, and vaguely anxious to end a situation which he appears no longer to control. He cannot, of course, and never will be able to believe that he does not know everything best. His pride and long habit of domination have been touched by the palsying finger of time to a morbid and ludicrous obsession of omniscience. He criticises the war methods of Foch and Haig, regulates the minor sanitary arrangements of Mecca, and edits “Al Qibla” with an absolute conviction of being unique in his competence to engage in these varied activities. But while sure of himself, he now knows that His Majesty's Government do not share his views as to the universality of his attributes. This has rather shaken him. It seems better to abstain from exploiting bis discomfiture; to press on a sore nerve would only enrage him. I believe that he is himself seeking a solution compatible alike with his dignity and with his peace of mind. Before leaving Jeddah, King Hussein summoned the merchants and told them that he knew they considered his periodical borrowings as ruinous to trade, and he could only recommend them to pray God to strike him dead. He added that he felt he was growing an old man-he is, in fact, ageing--and that it was possible that they might never see his face again, for he had it in mind to retire to Taif. One merchant brought confusion on his neighbours by muttering “Amen” behind his hand. The King is due to arrive in Jeddah again to-morrow, the 11th March. Fuad-el-Khatib informs me that the Emir Ali spoke to him seriously last year of leading a movement against his father, whose intransigent personal animosities are recognised by his sons to be obstacles to the progress of the Arab cause. Sheikh Fuad dissuaded his Highness from such a project, urging that the hostile propaganda to which Emir Ali would thereby expose himself might well prove overwhelming. The French are believed to be considering Shereef Ali Pasha, maternal uncle of the Emirs Ali, Abdullah and Feisal, and himself Emir of Mecca before the Young Turkish revolution, as a candidate for Syria. Shereef Ali Pasha is at present living in Cairo.
