Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎97v] (195/540)

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Iraqi or Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan posts, and those at Lanqa, Lina and Hafar-al-Batan aie
stated to be of stone, nearly completed, and larger than the corresponding posts
across the frontiers.
135. The corps of officers remained as heterogeneous and as disorganised as
ever. It numbers Turks, Egyptians, Syrians and a Javanese among its membeis.
Muhammad-bin-Sultan, almost the only officer not of foreign origin who was
formerly commander of camelry in the Hejaz, has been little heard 01 since its
absorption into the regular forces.
136. Saudi Arabia possesses nothing which can be termed a navy, but the
Government have recently laid down two large dhows which, it is supposed, will
be used for coast patrols. The Saudi Minister in London was among the
representatives of States, not members of the League of Nations, to whom the
recent London Naval Treaty was communicated, and the Saudi Arab Government
have been invited to accede to the rules governing the action of submarines with
regard to merchant ships in time of war, contained in the 'proces-verbal signed at
London on the 6th November, 1936. No reply to this invitation had been received
by the end of the year.
V.— Aviation and Connected Matters.
Saudi A ir Force.
137. The year under review has seen considerable aerial activity in this
country. For this the chief credit must be given to the Italian Government.
138. Eight of the students who were sent to Italy in 1935 for training in
aviation returned to Jedda on the 4th April and the other two on the 31st May.
These “eagles,” as they were nicknamed by the local press, received a rousing
welcome on arrival, but soon found that their pay was not to be commensurate
with their prestige, being, in fact, about equal to that of chauffeurs. For a short
period they were in some sort propagandists for Italy and her aviation, but any
effect they may have had was soon dispelled by their lack of skill. They proved
incapable of flying a French aeroplane of a make to which they were not
accustomed, and it soon appeared that, although they had been taught to manage
the controls of an aeroplane, they knew nothing about the works. Their solitary
triumph was when some of their number flew over Mecca, the first, according to
Moslem tradition, since Muhammad and his steed Buraq, and their arrogance
and ostentation, added to their inefficiency, soon alienated public sympathy.
Their commanding officer, the chief of the Jedda garrison, made it plain in a
conversation at the end of the summer that his £ £ eagles ’ ’ had turned out to be
the merest landrails.
139. The small success of their first foreign-trained pilots may have shaken
the Saudi Arab Government’s resolve to have students trained abroad. It is true
that soon after his arrival His Majesty’s Minister was asked by the Acting
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs whether His Majesty’s Government would
be prepared to train in England ten to fifteen Saudi aviation students annually,
and, if so, what would be the cost and the facilities which would be extended to
them, but the request was conveyed in a personal letter, and it is doubtful whether
the enquiry had the approval of the King. It is one thing to resist Italian
proposals that more Saudi pilots should be trained in Italy, as Ibn Saud seems
to have done, but quite another to turn immediately to His Majesty’s Government
for such facilities. A non-committal reply was returned to Sheikh Yusuf Yasin’s
enquiry, and the question was still under consideration at the end of the year,
when there were signs that a policy of training pilots in Jedda had been decided
upon, with one Italian pilot and one Russian as instructors.
140. Not content with providing instruction for the “eagles,” either free
or at a low cost, the Italian Government offered Saudi Arabia six aeroplanes.
They were accepted, the Acting Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs informed
Sir Andrew Ryan, in accordance with the Saudi policy of preserving an
appearance of friendship with Italy. Three instructional biplanes of unknown
make were landed from an Italian steamer on the 29th May and assembled by
Italian mechanics. For a time they were flown regularly by some of the Saudi
pilots under the supervision of an Italian instructor, but one was wrecked and