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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎65v] (131/540)

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The record is made up of 1 file (268 folios). It was created in 18 Apr 1931-18 May 1945. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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36
content to block the way for any other mission. Their policy, whatever its purpose,
costs them more than it costs the Saudi Government, who provide nothing but
food and quarters. The mission consists of an officer pilot and about eight
mechanics, who are all on the strength of the Italian Air Force and are paid from
Italian funds. The mechanics are relieved at intervals of six months or so.
134. At the time when Sheikh Yusuf asked for the help of His Majesty s
Government in the United Kingdom in obtaining arms he brought a message from
Ibn Saud, coupled with the hope that His Majesty’s Government would not think
that the King was trying to play one country oft' against another, that the Italians
had offered to supply him with Italian or German rifles or machine guns, and that
he proposed to keep them in play. The first offer seems to have been narrowed
down to one of 4,000 rifles (at first said by Sheikh Yusuf Yasin to be German, but
apparently Italian) at 250 lire apiece. The Saudi Government declared that this
price was too high, as they had bought some from Belgium a few years before at
one and a half gold pounds apiece, c.i.f. Jedda.
135. Ibn Saud informed Sir R. Bullard at Riyadh in July that the Italians
had eventually reduced their price to 10s. gold apiece. He did not want to accept
anything from the Italians, but, on the other hand, he did not want to offend
them, so he had refused on the ground that he had no Italian rifles in his army
and that to introduce a new type would be confusing. He continued the story at an
interview granted to His Majesty’s Minister in December. The Italians had
offered to get him any kind of rifles he liked, £.^., Mausers from Austria or
Germany. When the King pleaded poverty, the Italians assured him that easy
terms could be arranged. Keeping to his delaying tactics the King said that if
samples could be furnished the matter would be studied. And there the matter
rested for the moment. Ibn Saud asked whether he had done right: what would
His Majesty’s Government say ?
136. His Majesty’s Minister could only repeat what the Saudi Minister in
London had already heard at the Foreign Office. His Majesty’s Government had
provided all the arms which their urgent needs enabled them to spare. If it had
been within their power they would gladly have supplied more, but it was not.
Ibn Saud was the sole judge of his requirements in the matter of arms. It would
evidently be better if he could obtain them from “ neutral ” sources rather than
from a Government like the Italian, which, as His Majesty had himself said, was
not offering cheap arms out of pure love for Saudi Arabia, but if in the end he
could not escape the Italian offer he would at least be acting with his eyes open.
Ibn Saud said that he would continue to delay as far as he could, but there usually
came a time in such cases where a decision could no longer be postponed.
137. According to a statement made to His Majesty’s Minister by Fuad Bey
at this time, the Italians wanted to sell Italian guns and anti-aircraft guns, in
fact any war material that Ibn Saud might need.
138. Italian propaganda in various forms was much in evidence. The
pilgrimage, in particular, was used for this purpose, but the Italian Legation
also distributed newspapers from Libya. The Bari broadcasts in Arabic reached
an increasing circle of listeners in the Hejaz as the use of wireless apparatus
became more common.
139. The Italians did not at first abandon their proposal to establish a
hospital in the Hejaz. As a compromise they offered to build a hospital in Mecca
and hand it over to the Saudi Government to administer, but the offer was refused.
They, however, took a newly-built house in a prominent position near the Italian
Legation and established in it a well-equipped dispensary in the charge of an
Italian doctor with experience of the East. The equipment includes X-ray
apparatus, in the use of which Dr. Ghersi is said to be skilled. One floor of
the house’was intended for beds, but at the end of the year it was vacant—
perhaps because the Saudi authorities objected to the plan as cover for the
establishment of a hospitals
140. Pilgrims from Ethiopia (paragraph 93 of 1936) were, in fact, sub
sidised by the Italian authorities. How many came on these terms it is difficult
to ascertain, as the information on the subject, as published in the Mecca press,
was apparently so treated as to minimise or conceal the Italian effort as far as

About this item

Content

This file contains copies of annual reports regarding the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia) during the years 1930-1938 and 1943-1944.

The reports were produced by the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) and sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (and in the case of these copies, forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India), with the exception of the reports for 1943 and 1944, which appear to have been produced and sent by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda, Stanley R Jordan.

The reports covering 1930-1938 discuss the following subjects: foreign relations; internal affairs; financial, economic and commercial affairs; military organisation; aviation; legislation; press; education; the pilgrimage; slavery and the slave trade; naval matters. The reports for 1943 and 1944 are rather less substantial. The 1943 report discusses Arab affairs, Saudi relations with foreign powers, finance, supplies, and the pilgrimage, whilst the 1944 report covers these subjects in addition to the following: the activities of the United States in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East Supply Centre, and the Saudi royal family.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (268 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 269; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-12 and ff 45-268; these numbers are also written in pencil but are not circled.

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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎65v] (131/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2085, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036362870.0x000084> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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