'File 8/15 Arab Series - 1933-1939' [‎72r] (143/434)

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Enel. 2 to S. No. (94). 1
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Extract para^aph 102 of Kuwait Intelligence Summary No. 10, for
THE PERIOD 1st TO 31ST OCTOBER 1934.
*****
102. Bin Saud and Yemen Campaign. — (a) Since the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. returned
from leave, he has found many opportunities of discussing past Yemen
events with a number of Bedouin trans-border Chiefs, as well as with the
Shaikh of Kuwait and notables of the Town.
On all sides he has been told that Bin Saud has definitely lost much
“prestige” as a result of the war.
Everywhere the belief is very strong that had Bin Saud been strong
enough, nothing in the world would have prevented him from over-running
or crushing Yahya- He, however., found himself in imminent danger after
his seizure of Hodeida, of being surrounded and his armies destroyed, so
he wisely obeyed the instincts of self-preservation and made the peace he
did. Yahya was also satisfied, being an old man and without aggressive
ideas—for had he not won the moral victory and forced Bin Saud to with
draw, without so much as surrendering an inch of Yemen territory, or
paying a rial by way of indemnity?
(b) The barren Nejran after all was no gain to Bin Saud, but has
merely been given ito her own people, the Yam tribe, who are blood brothers
of the Murra and Ajman tribes.
*****
(95)
(Received on November 1934, with Political Secretary's letter No. '45,
dated the 8th November 1934 .) j
Letter from H. M.’s Charge d’affaires, Jedda, to Foreign Office,
No. 300, dated the 2nd October 1934.
I have the honour to inform you that the Mecca newspaper the Saut-
al-Ptijaz announced in its issue of the 24th September the appointment by
Ibn Saud of his Minister of Finance, Sheikh Abdullah Suleiman-al-Ham-
dan. to be Deputy Minister of Defence, an office he is to occupy in addition
to his present one. As you are aware, the Minister of Finance has for some
time, and notably during the recent conflict with the Yemen, effectively
performed the functions of Minister of War.
2. The same communique also announces the appointment of Sayyid
Saleh Shata (Personalities Report, No. 85) and Sheikh Khalid Abul Walid-
al-Qarqani (Personalities Report, No. 57) as members of the permanent
committee of the Council of Ministers.
3. It is a little curious that no reference to (these important appoint
ments should appear in the Umm-al-Qura, a newspaper, which is generally
regarded as the official or semi-official organ of the Saudi Government..
Enel. 1 to S. No. (95).
Extract from Report on Personalities in Saudi Arabia.
57. Khalid Al Qarqani .—A Tripolitan, who is said to have served
under the Seniisi, fought the Italians and retired into exile in Egypt, where
he has a daughter married to Abdur-Rohman’ Azzam Bey, formerly a desert
fighter in the Seniisi cause, now a member of the Egyptian Chamber. Al
Qarqani was brought to Ibn Sa’ud’s notice, it is said, by Sheykh Hafiz
Wahba, and came to the Hejaz in 1930. Was appointed in September 1930
First Assistant to the Viceroy, but apparently soon vacated the post and
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