IOR/L/PS/10/466

Papers concerning the impact of war between Britain and Turkey upon shipping, food supplies and travellers on Hajj pilgrimage, along the Red Sea coast of Arabia (including the Hedjaz [Hejaz] and Yemen), and the wider Arab region. Subjects covered include:

• Reports of food shortages in the Hedjaz region (including at Jeddah and Mecca), prompted by the Government of India’s prohibition of exports to the region from India in March 1914, the subsequent reinstatement of exports (announced in a communiqué from the Viceroy in May 1915, folios 90-91), and reports of the seizure of foodstuffs by the Turkish authorities at Mecca and Jeddah (ff 44-48).
• Arrangements for the shipment of foodstuffs to the Hedjaz from Egypt.
• Italian shipping in the Red Sea, including reports of Italian ships stopping at Turkish-controlled ports, and articles banned from being shipped by Italian vessels (ff 167-168).
• A reported incident in February 1915, in which Turkish military authorities requisitioned 30,000 sacks of barley from an Italian vessel, reported as being intended for Egyptian pilgrims (ff 153-162).
• The role of the Italian authorities in the Hedjaz in the distribution of supplies, and the implications on this role of Italy’s entry into the war (ff 85-89).
• Famine in Yemen, reported by British officials as being the result of locust outbreaks in the region, and shipping restrictions from India (ff 122-124).
• Discussion of whether British subjects from India should be prohibited, or only discouraged from, travelling to Arabia on pilgrimage in 1915 (ff 69-77).
• The High Commissioner in Egypt, Arthur Henry McMahon’s 1915 proclamation ‘to the people of Arabia’ (English text, folio 64), including responses to the proclamation, and discussion of its implications, amongst Foreign and India Office staff (ff 54-64).
• Copies of correspondence from McMahon, dated March to June 1916, regarding his negotiations with Shereef [Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi] (ff 18-32).
• In May 1916, a further blockade on foodstuffs to Jeddah (ff 5-17).

The volume’s principal correspondents include: the British High Commissioner in Egypt (Arthur Henry McMahon); the India Office (Arthur Hirtzel, Thomas William Holderness); the British Political Resident at Aden (Charles Henry Uvedale Price); the Viceroy and Governor-General of India (Charles Hardinge).

The file contains a single item of correspondence in French, a copy of a letter from the Banque Imperiale Ottomane at Djeddah [Jeddah], dated 27 November 1914 (ff 180-183).