Coll 30/172 'Attitude of Ibn Saud (Saudi Arabia) towards Arab rulers in Persian Gulf and P. Gulf affairs.' [‎23r] (46/66)

the whole position in the light of these new factors.
2, The personal respect which Ihn Saud has for
--O
■lis ilighness the Shaikh of Bahrain v/as shown v/hen the
Crown Brinee .of S^udi Arabia visited Bahrain a year ago and
on the occasion of the return visit of the shaikh to the
dejaz shortly afterwards. The king,when speaking to me
about the visit, praised the Shaikh as an excellent man,
and moreover of the so 'e tribal origin as himself, while
the Anir Baud snoke of t^e difference between the Shaikh
and the ot^er Arab rulers, v/hom he described as rather
Boeotian- I>irirg m> r recent visit to kiyadh Ibn Baud spoke
with con- ern about the Shaikh, v/hose position he considered
was endangered by the Persian intrigues which in his opinion
had caused the recent agitation. Be became quite animated
in his sympathy. There was the Zubara question too, he said:
that remained open. said - thought this question had been
settled (I did not say that the decision of His Majesty’s
Government was not to supuort the Bahrain claim/, rut the
King said it v/as by no means settled.. j -his was the first
reference to the ^ubara question since the conversation
DU-
with Kuad Hamza which I reported in my despatch Ho. 1_8_
(222/469/3) of February 1st,. 1938, except that some months
*VO£»oji«V t'OC
tv f t){p<q>M ago one
of the Iecca newspapers printed an obscure paragranh
v/hich did n^t mention Zubara b 7 r name but referred to what
could only be the Zabarn disnute and alleged that it had been
exacerbated by the discovery of oil at the place concerned.
3. If there was nothing novel in the King s praise
of the Shaikh of Bahrain on this recent occasion, to hear
him praise the Shaikh of Kuwait was certainly quite new.
Hitherto we have always been given to understand that he
/ regarded