Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎247v] (495/540)

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what nondescript diplomatic missions and some bode their time. ^ lien a u is
Minister arrived in Jedda on the 6th May, Jbn Baud was a made man as regards
the international position that he coveted. He tumbled over himsclt in grateiu
and very graceful courtesy. He was occupied at the moment with the pilgi image,
but as soon as it was over he came specially to Jedda to receive Sir A. Kyan s ^
credentials on the 16th May. There is no doubt that the presence in Jedda ot a
British representative of senior rank presents many advantages from our own
point of view. Unfortunately they are offset by the failure of the King to produce
a Ministry for Foreign Affairs worthy of the name and by the impossibility oi
personal access to Ibn Baud himself except on the rare occasions when he visits
Jedda. The first of these difficulties will be dealt with in another section.
62 a. Before Sir A. Ryan’s arrival, Ibn Baud had chosen Sheikh Hafiz
Wahba to be his own representative in London. This gentleman is an Egyptian
and was at one time regarded as anti-British. Since he joined Ibn Baud, his
influence would appear to have been used in a sense not unfavourable to His
Majesty’s Government. He has been one of the King’s most trusted advisers
and it was some time before His Majesty made up his mind to part with him.
In July, however, he proceeded to his new post. He presented his letters of
credence on the 10th November.
63. No account in a first annual report of the relations between Great
Britain and Hejaz-Nejd would be complete without a reference to two questions,
one of which, that of the Aqaba and Maan district, was completely in abeyance
throughout 1930, while the other, that of the Hejaz Railway, arose only
incidentally. They nevertheless remain in the background of our general relations
with Ibn Baud. Oddly enough they can best be introduced by an apparently
irrelevant interlude on the curious role played in the Hejaz by a private British
resident, Mr. H. St. J. B. Philby. This gentleman is a retired member of the
Indian Civil Service. Having been employed on special service in Arabia during
the Great War, he became in due course British representative in 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 .
In 1924 he fell violently foul of the Colonial Office and forestalled dismissal by
a forced resignation which was followed by his resignation from the Indian
Civil Service in 1925. His earlier work in Arabia had taken him to Riadh.
He conceived an unlimited admiration for Ibn Baud and he glories, not unjustly,
in being able to represent himself as the man who backed the right horse.
After breaking with His Majesty’s Government he settled in Jedda and has
there combined the functions of managing director of a British firm, Sharqieh,
Limited, with the authorship of books on Arabia, the position of correspondent
of the “ Near East ” newspaper, the cultivation of Ibn Baud’s friendship and
the justification to the outer world of all that monarch’s ways. His influence
and his ability have been exaggerated both by those who see in him the power
behind the Arabian throne and those who are guileless or anti-British enough
to think him a British agent.
64. Mr. Philby’s devotion to Ibn Baud is sincere and as disinterested as it
is possible for the attitude of a gentleman concerned with trade in the Hejaz to be.
He is supposed in many quarters to use his influence in a definitely anti-British
sense and to be a sort of political Fra Diavolo. This view also is exaggerated,
but it is certain that he plays a role in Ibn Baud’s entourage, and his activities,
even if not expressly directed against Great Britain, do nothing to help, for they
at least encourage the King in his frequent stiffness vis-a-vis His Majesty’s
Government. In July 1930 Mr. Philby completed a spiritual Odyssey, which had
led him through the wilderness of militant atheism, by embracing Wahhabism
as a creed. His motives were obscure, but need not be rated too low. He may be
regarded as a man wLo has made his religion, negative as such, a matter of
political sentiment and quest for further opportunity. To his existing names
which included that of St. John he added Abdullah.
65. The really important question is, however, whether Mr. Philby’s change
of faith has given him increased influence in political matters. It is not likely
to have impressed the King’s other advisers, but it may well have impressed the
King himself, and it has certainly enlarged Mr. Philby’s range of action by giving