'File 8/15 Arab Series - 1933-1939' [‎203r] (405/434)

2. I have now received copy of pamphlets believed to have been distri
buted in Haram in Mecca January 31st. It purports to have been publish
ed in Egypt January 8th by Palestine Arab Intelligence Bureau [grp.
undec.] and prints garbled accounts of fighting and population taking
refuge in Mosques and Churches, reproduces torn Koran picture referred
to in my telegram under reference.
Addressed to Foreign Office, No. 37, repeated to Jerusalem No. 5 and
Saving to Cairo.
(14)
{Received on the 26th February 1938, with Political Secretary's letter
No. 6, dated the 10th February 1938.)
Enclosure in Foreign Office covering letter, dated the 2nd February 1938.
(E.-196/196/25.]
Letter from Sir R. Bullard, to Mr. Eden.—(Received January 11,
1938), (No. 181), dated Jedda, December, 18, 1937.
I have had the honour to report to you by telegram on various ques
tions raised in an interview which I had with Ibn Sand on the 15th Decem
ber, during a visit of forty-eight hours which he paid to Jedda. I now give
a summary of the whole of the conversation.
2. His Majesty began, quite unexpectedly, with Iraq. He was wor
ried at the instability and what might be called lack of continuity there.
The Cabinet was divided and resignations were threatened, and some of the
tribes were still hostile. I talked of the difficulties which naturally beset a
country in the first stages of self-government, and said that in any case I
should be surprised to hear that Saudi Arabia had any ground of complaint
against the Iraq Government. Ibn Sand said that that was true. Even
in the time of Hikmet Sulaiman (though he seemed relieved that that regime
had come to an end) he could not say that the attitude of the Iraq Govern
ment had been anything but correct towards himeslf and Saudi Arabia, but
he felt that he never knew what would happen there next. For instance,
there were people there who were bringing forward schemes for Palestine,
not, from love of Palestine or of the Arabs, nor from friendship towards
His Majesty’s Government, but from personal ambition. I concluded that
he was referring to the project of Nuri Pasha’s, which is mentioned in
Bagdad telegram No. 261 of the 13th Decemebr, and which formed the
subject of Mr. Kelly’s despatch, of which a copy was sent to me under
cover of your despatch No. 369, dated the 30th September, 1937, and this
impression was confirmed when the King mentioned a scheme which Nuri
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. had explained to Sheikh Hafiz Wahba in Egypt some time ago; but,
as will be seen later, Ibn Saud had also heard of another palestine scheme
affecting Iraq. I sent a telegram to the Foreign Office on this point, No. 97,
dated the 16th December.
3. The King then spoke of the Italians, of whom he seemned to be no
less suspicious than he was when he talked to Mr. Rendel and myself in
March. They were always interfering, now in one country, now in another.
Look at the Yemen! After the publication of the Italo-Yemeni Treaty not
long ago, he wrote to the Imam and asked whether there was anythin^
behind what was published. The Imam assured him that there was nothing
and he believed the Imam, who was a clever, wide-awake man; but he would
not answer for the Imam’s sons, nor for the Yemeni officials.
4. The next subject was arms. Ibn Saud said that, as His Majesty's
Government knew, he had tried to treat the Italian offer of arms in such a
way as not to place himself under an obligation by acceptance and yet not to
offend the Italians. The offer of Italian rifles he had eventually refused,
118 f ExAfiairsDept