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Coll 6/8(1) 'Printed Series: 1929 to 1938.' [‎36r] (76/1062)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (527 folios). It was created in 6 Jan 1929-15 Jan 1938. It was written in English and French. 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. .

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report. It is true that the prospectors have not been at work long, and it must
also be remembered that an American company found oil at Bahrein where
the Shell Company had given up the search, but the reports from the com
pany’s experienced geologists, who seem to have covered most of the ground,
have left the Jedda manager very gloomy. Two other possible sources of
wealth can be foreseen at present: that oil will be found in the Rub’-al-
Khali, and that somewhere in such parts of Arabia as are not included in the
Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate’s concession gold or some other valuable
mineral will be found in quantities and in conditions that will repay the work
ing. There can be little in the commercial schemes which are discussed in
the Mecca press from time to time. It is not by selling to pilgrims small boxes
of Medina dates that the Saudi budget will be made to meet at the back,
nor by curing rather less badly the few skins the country has to export.
Several grandiose schemes, which in succession raised Saudi hopes, have come
to nothing. The chief of these were the Jedda-Mecca Railway, the Saudi
State Bank, which the ex-Khedive was supposed to be prepared to establish,
and the loan of half a million or so which the Saudi Government hoped they
could raise in England on rather vague security.
6 For the present, then, the Saudi Government are living on the pil-
grimage revenues supplemented by windfalls, such as advances m respect
of the various concessions, the purchase by the Italian Government of an
unknown number of camels at absurdly high prices, and consignments of
arms petrol, &c., for which they have never paid. Thus, windfalls apart,
Saudi Arabia is dependent upon a source of revenue on which noteven the
Heiaz alone had to Uve before the war, for there seems to be no doubt that the
Ottoman Government put into the Hejaz, in the way o subsidies and m over-
s ss&s&sz
Tto fluctuations of *" i'lil In 1»27
,0 you. rhe total »'”™““ f f " f “, to T h. Burnt-of filgm..
sians is diminishing. Stateme d Legations in Jedda suggest
tion by members of the Pe ™ a “ as S a use less drain upon the
that their Governments 1 ' e 8 ar , j : t geem3 likely that the increasing
national resources On ^.^q^^Snofto increase, the number
feeling of Arab sohdanty wiU ^"n * and perhaps Iraq, while in Moslem
of pilgrims from Egypt, byna ana rai i th riti be careful not to
countries under European rule^ tnterference with the pilgri-
take any action which mig probably tend to encourage the pilgrimage
mage, but nationalist feeling mU proba y B t it seems unhkely
by S using religious \ ^P&rirns^m increase to such a point as to enable
that the average number of p g . . d w hich he would doubtless be
bu * te
f 'H“; “oTnTwn above
after year for normal sources of / e Tf™ e J n a Mosl e ms making the pilgrimage to
the most invidious, viz., l® v y 0 be Surprising if this disposed him to class
the shrine of Allah. It would not be ns that with the exception
his country with the “ have-nots . And it happen ^ out of conB1 .
of the Yemen, which he reframed fromannex^t for fe b r of Italy, he sees
deration for pan-Arab feeling, but p J territory which he could
55(C) ExAffairsDept

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Content

This volume compiles printed copies of letters, telegrams, memoranda and newspaper extracts relating to Britain's involvement across the Arabian Peninsula during the period 1929-1938. Whilst the correspondence encompasses all matters concerning British interests in the region, much of it relates to Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia). Matters discussed in the correspondence include the following:

  • Reports of unrest in the Hejaz.
  • Relations between Imam Yeha Hamid-Ud-Din [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn, Imam of Yemen] and Ibn Saud.
  • Reports of raids and arms trafficking on the 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 -Nejd frontier.
  • Reports of the proceedings of British naval ships in the Red Sea.
  • Details of the Akhwan [Ikhwan] revolt against Ibn Saud, including the movements of one of the revolt's leaders, Faisal Dawish [Fayṣal bin Sulṭān al-Dawīsh], and his surrender to the British in Kuwait.
  • Relations between Kuwait and Nejd.
  • Relations between Iraq and Nejd, including a proposed meeting between Ibn Saud and King Faisal [Fayṣal] of Iraq, and reports of a treaty of alliance between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
  • Objections from the Hejaz Government to Royal Air Force aircraft flying over Nejd territory.
  • The purchase of arms by the Hejaz Government from Poland.
  • Ibn Saud's annexation of Asir.
  • The death of King Hussein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī].
  • Harry St John Bridger Philby's conversion to Islam, his mapping of Rub-al-Khali, and his reported spreading of Saudi propaganda in the Aden Protectorate.
  • The currency exchange crisis in the Hejaz-Nejd and the financial situation in the kingdom generally.
  • Reports on a survey of the water and mineral content of the Hejaz coastal area.
  • Relations between Soviet Russia and Saudi Arabia.
  • The emigration of Jews from Yemen to Palestine, via Aden.
  • British fears that Italy might harbour ambitions to annex Yemen.
  • Saudi oil concessions.
  • Italian-Saudi relations.

Prominent correspondents include the following: the British Agent (later His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires) at Jeddah; His Majesty's Minister at Jeddah; the High Commissioner for Egypt; the High Commissioner for Iraq; the High Commissioner for 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 ; the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Kuwait; 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. (later Chief Commissioner, and later still, Governor), Aden; 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. ; His Majesty's Ambassador to Iraq; His Majesty's Ambassador to Italy; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; the Minister (and Acting Minister) for Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia); Ibn Saud; King Feisal of Iraq; the Prime Minister of Iraq; various officials of the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the Air Ministry, and the Admiralty.

The French material in the volume consists of several items of correspondence and a copy of a treaty between France and Yemen, which was signed in April 1936.

The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 volume (527 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

The items of correspondence are divided (roughly) into various sections. Each extract or item of correspondence within these sections has its own number, which is enclosed in brackets. These numbers proceed in ascending (and approximate chronological) order from left to right; however, the sections themselves proceed in reverse, from the rear to the front of the volume, in distinct groups (e.g. for 1929 numbers 1-23, which are located at folios 517-526, are followed by numbers 24-49 at folios 509-516, which are then followed by numbers 50-89 at folios 494-508, and so on).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 529; 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.

Pagination: each section of correspondence within the volume (as described in the arrangement field) has its own pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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Coll 6/8(1) 'Printed Series: 1929 to 1938.' [‎36r] (76/1062), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2071, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100061765163.0x00004d> [accessed 16 July 2026]

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