Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎18r] (36/540)

7
Italian propaganda of 1937 (paragraph 147 of that year) was the promulgation
of a measure which though general in terms was in fact intended to circumscribe
the efforts of the Italian Legation to spread its propaganda in the Hejaz. It was
in the form of a circular from the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the foreign
missions, saying that certain missions had been observed to be carrying out
“official formalities” with departments other than the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, and asking that the official channel provided by the Ministry should be
exclusively used in future. At the same time orders were issued to Saudi officials
and even to private Saudi citizens, not to mix with members of foreign missions
except on official occasions, and steps were taken to prevent the use of the
telephone for purposes of propaganda. It was feared at first that Saudi officials
might take advantage of this regulation to obstruct the pilgrimage work of the
legation but Fuad Bey gave assurances that this was not to be feared, and, in
fact, the Indian Vice-Consul has had little trouble on that score. The Soviet
Legation complained at first that the regulation had cut them off from their
Arab acquaintances, but some relaxation of the restriction in this respect was
noticed later in the year. The ban on propaganda suits His Majesty’s Govern
ment very well, and when the question arose towards the end of the year, whether
copies of a weekly magazine published in Egypt under British auspices would be
useful in the He.jaz, His Majesty’s Minister gave it as his opinion that we had
better refrain completely from propaganda in this country. It appears to
Sir R. Bullard that, apart from the King’s objection to propaganda, we might
provoke the Italians to a competition in which our greater vulnerability and their
greater powers of invention and vituperation would put us at a disadvantage.
Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism.
17. In spite of the interest which the various parts of the Arab world take
in each other’s fate, and of the common attitude adopted towards the Palestine
question, there are few signs of a development of a pan-Arab policy, or even ot
a strong pan-Arab spirit. Indeed, the Palestine question itself tended to
illustrate the cleavage, for it was evident that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq
each wanted to get most of the credit for any settlement which might be arrived
at. Ibn Saud is suspicious of Iraq and Egypt, as stronger neighbours who ma}
wish to exercise undue influence over his affairs, and his suspicions were not
diminished by the shouts of triumph with which Taufiq Suaidi returned from
his conversations in London about the Palestine question, or by the talk about the
establishment of an Egyptian Caliphate. He still detests and distrusts the
Amir Abdullah, and in spite of the correspondence which he keeps up with ban a,
he regards the Imam as a silly old man, his eldest son as a tool of the Italians,
and his people as savages. As to the population of Saudi Arabia, apart from the
ordinary hostility of townsman and nomad, no love is lost between the Hejaz ^ n d
Nejd. The Hejazi regards the Nejdis as locusts, and considers them, as he does
the Syrians, as foreigners, while the Syrians who are prominent in Saudi foreign
affairs and what is called for convenience the public health service strive to
maintain their monopoly against all comers and, in particular, against the
Egyptians.
th States in Arabia.
Iraq.
18. The Iraq Government seem to regard Ibn Saud with condescension and
he certainly regards them with caution, if not suspicion, but relations weie
outwardly very cordial throughout the year, and in September the growing
importance of the relations of the two countries was marked by the replacement
of the Saudi Charge d’Affaires in Bagdad by a Minister. The first to enjoy this
enhanced status was Hamza-al-Gauth, a native of Medina long employed m
Ibn Sand’s diwan. It had been agreed in principle that Iraq was to have a
Minister at Riyadh, but no appointment had been made by the time the year came
to an end. The rather bombastic attempts of Taufiq Suaidi to claim the credit
for bringing about a change in the policy of His Majesty’s Government in regard
to Palestine were highly displeasing to Ibn Saud, who, however, can hardly have
been better pleased when Taufiq Suaidi was succeeded as Foreign Minister by
Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . Ibn Saud is particularly suspicious of Nuri, whom he suspects of
advocating policies which are to his own advantage rather than to the advantage
of the Arabs in general.
[18903] D *