'File 8/15 Arab Series - 1933-1939' [‎167v] (334/434)

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{Received on 9th May 1937 with Political Secretary's letter No. 16, dated 22nd
April 1937.)
Enclosure in Foreign Office covering letter dated 14th April 1937.
Letter from Minister, Jedda, to Foreign Office, No. 27, dated 22nd
March 1937.
Jedda, February 28, 1937.
In accordance with the instructions conveyed in the last paragraph
of your telegram No. 135, dated the 5th December, regarding Mr. Philby’s
expedition into the Aden Protectorate, I had the honour to send you, in my
telegram No. 9 of the 22nd February, an outline of Mr. Philby’s attitude.
I now transmit a full summary of statements which he made to me in the course
of a conversation on the 18th February. The collapse of his motor transport
and, later, heavy floods delayed his return so long that he had only a few
hours in Jedda before leaving for Mecca for the pilgrimage, but during that
short time he called at the Legation and he talked freely about his journey.
2. As I anticipated, Mr. Philby was in his most heroic prometheus mood.
Indeed, he was even more difficult than I had expected, for to his desire to
bring the light of science to mankind is now added a quite ferocious intention
to expose the alleged duplicity of His Majesty’s Government towards the
Arabs of the peninsula. He asserts that the second part of this programme
w T as added only under the provocation which he considers he received from
the Aden authorities. I did not enter upon a discussion of the pledges given
or alleged to have been given in respect of Arab independence. I had never
studied the McMahon correspondence closely from the point of view of the
Arabian peninsula, and, in any case, it would be unwise to treat Mr. Philby
as the protagonist of the Arab claims. Moreover, I had in hand the less ne
bulous argument that Shabwa lay outside the extreme limits ever claimed
by the Saudi Government. Mr. Philby’s attitude towards that fact is shown
in paragraph 6 of the enclosed record. He professes to demand independence
for the Arabs in the Arabian peninsula without regard to the Saudi demands,
of which he, however, claimed to be fully aware. He informed me that he
had on his maps the two proposed frontiers in the south, the British and the
Saudi. In that case, he was aware before he set out for Shabwa that it lay
heyond the limits claimed by the Saudi Government.
3. Mr. Philby is unable to see that he treated Ibn Saud badly in obtain
ing an escort for topographical work and exploration in Saudi Arabia and
using it, unknown to his patron, to enter territory outside Saudi Arabia.
As to the Aden authorities, he regards their claim to Shabwa as a trespass
on territory which was abandoned by His Majesty’s Government in favour
of Arab independence in the McMahon correspondence. In that corres
pondence His Majesty’s Government agreed to recognise “ the independence
of the Arab countries ” within the limits laid down by the Sherif Hussein,
which included the whole of the Arabian peninsula except Aden and, possibly,
the Arab States On the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , but they added the proviso:
“ without prejudice to the existing treaties with Arab Chiefs.” Probably
Mr. Philby would say that His Majesty’s Government had no treaty
then and have none now with the Arab Chief of Shabwa, and regard that as
the last word on a subject of great practical and legal complexity. I assume
that the observations of the Chief Commissioner of Aden on Mr. Philby’s
claims will be recorded in due course. At first sight it seems to me that
there is just enough truth in Mr. Philby’s contention to afford a moral shelter
behind which he can indulge his personal tastes and feelings and interests
to the full.
4. Mr. Philby’s claim that from the political point of view his expedition
was on all fours with that of Mr. Bertram Thomas is unfounded. It is true
that Mr. Thomas was at the time in the employ of the Sultan of Muscat, but
he had no official escort, and the Sultan had never given reason to anyone