Coll 30/149 'Bahrain: Saudi Relations with Bahrain. Proposed visit of Emir Saud to Bahrain.' [‎17r] (33/123)

behalf of the King by Shaikh v U8U f Yaein. The aantimenta
expressed were in all respects admirablei the King*• speech
referring to 11 this Arab Island under its Arab Holer". Though
it would be foolish to Imagine that the King had any parti
cular motive| this part of the speech was a potent reply to
those who talk of British domination snd colonisation In
Bahrain or the dictatorship of the British Adviser.
6. On the following day, Friday, the King joined in
the prayers at the Mosque in Manama. In the afternoon he
paid a visit to the Oil Field and Refinery, during which
Mr. Belgrave and I accompanied him in his car and were com
pelled to assume the role of oil experts. During much of
the drive however His Majesty held forth on politics; after
a brief reference to M. Litvinoff* a departure from the scene
in Russia and a remark that he wished he knew whnt this
meant, the Bing embarked on a long statement of his dislike
for Germany Italy and their hectoring methods. He said
that Herr Grobba had told him recently that Germany and
Italy were stronger than the rest of Europe put together,
that the Democracies were afraid of them and that he, Ibn
Saud, would be well advised to link his fate with the Axis*
He himself however had not the least doubt that if war broke
out in Europe there would be revolution in Germany and Italy
whose people must, he said, be sick of "having their tongues
held". He then went on to deprecate modem tendencies in
Iraq. Iraq, he said, seemed to be composed of three quite
irreconcilable elements, the Government, the tirmy and the
People. Everyone was in far too much of a hurry and T raqi
foreign policy was deplorable. He himself thought that
they would all do well to remember how much Arab nations
owed to England. But for England the Iraq State would never
have come into existence and Egypt would have been at the
mercy/-