![PZ 1115/1938 'Col. Dickson's visit to Riyadh and conversations with Ibn Saud.' [‎16r] (31/96)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000466.0x000248/IOR_L_PS_12_245_0031.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "PZ 1115/1938 'Col. Dickson's visit to Riyadh and conversations with Ibn Saud.' [‎16r] (31/96)")
PZ 1115/1938 'Col. Dickson's visit to Riyadh and conversations with Ibn Saud.' [16r] (31/96)
The record is made up of 1 file (48 folios). It was created in 18 Aug 1937-26 Feb 1938. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
•53
maammmm
3
(4) The railway would be of advantage to Saudi Arabia, and we should therefore
earn the gratitude of Ibn Saud by yaying for it to be rebuilt.
It is submitted that Ibn Sand’s attitude towards His Majesty’s Government
will be decided by so many important considerations that such gratitude as we
might earn (at heavy financial cost) by rebuilding the railway would not weigh
** r ery heavily in the balance. Moreover, unless the railway receipts covered main-
Lengmce and renewals, Ibn Baud’s gratitude for the past might soon be forgotten
in anxiety for the future, and he might even look to His Majesty’s Government
to meet the deficit and be more dissatisfied at their refusal than he seems to be
with the situation as it is at present. Whether the railway could be made to pay
is a question for experts. We can be certain that people who only ran the Jedda
condenser with great difficulty would run a railway with the same centralised
inefficiency, and that it would speedily deteriorate for lack of essential repairs
and replacements. Unless it is quite certain that the railway would not become a
burden to Saudi Arabia its reconstruction is not to be recommended from the
British point of view, for nothing that causes the financial situation of Saudi
Arabia to deteriorate would be to the advantage of His Majesty’s Government in
the long run. A self-supporting Ibn Saud is less likely to covet oil-fields, ports
(with custom-houses) and taxable populations that are either under our control
or at least kept out of his control by our influence, than an Ibn Saud who is always
pulling the devil by the tail.
(5) The railway might be of strategic value to His Majesty's Government in time
of war.
This would only apply if Saudi Arabia was our ally, and that seems, from the
observation post of Jedda, to be a very remote contingency to work to. In case
of a European war, Saudi Arabia would be in a position similar to that of Turkey
in 1914, when the Central Powers could offer Turkey important territorial gains
at the expense of the Allies, and the most the Allies could hope for was to persuade
her to maintain neutrality. His Majesty’s Government would have reason to be
satisfied if Saudi Arabia remained neutral, and to spend money on the railway
in the hope that we might be allowed to use it in war time would seem to be a
highly speculative investment. But, of course, if there were other important con
siderations which were in favour of the reconstruction of the line, that faint
chance of our being allowed to use it in war time would be an additional induce
ment, provided—a point which must be left to experts in strategy—the railway
could not be made an important weapon against us if Saudi Arabia should join
the enemies of His Majesty’s Government.
About this item
- Content
The file consists of correspondence and other papers mainly relating to the private visit of Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and his three private conversations with King Ibn Saud.
It includes correspondence between John Charles Walton, 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. , and Dickson, including a letter from Walton to Dickson of 2 November 1937 enclosing a summary of Dickson’s three private conversations with Ibn Saud, in which the views of Ibn Saud on Palestine and relations with the British Government are quoted (folios 33-44). The file also includes correspondence between Walton and the following concerning the visit: George William Rendel, Foreign Office; Sir Findlater Stewart, 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. ; and M J Clauson, 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. .
There is also correspondence between the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and the Secretary of State for India, and between H. Lacy Baggallay, Foreign Office, and M J Clauson, 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. .
- Extent and format
- 1 file (48 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate reverse chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 48; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/245
- Title
- PZ 1115/1938 'Col. Dickson's visit to Riyadh and conversations with Ibn Saud.'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:11v, 15r:16v, 20r:20v, 23r:24v, 27r:31v, 45r:46v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence