"ملف 8/15 سلسلة الجزيرة العربية - ١٩٣٣-١٩٣٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٤‎٦] (٤٣٤/٢٩٢)

Enclosures in Foreign Office covering letter dated December 9, 1931, No.
E.-7172/5404/91.
Letter from the British Legation, Jedda to the Foreign Office, No.
289, dated the 25th October 1936.
I am now able to inform you that Mr. Philby, on whose movements I
reported in my despatch No. 271, dated 22nd September, has reached
Najran on the return journey and is expected to arrive in Jedda in about
three weeks from now.
2. I have studied very carefully the despatch from Aden to the Colonial
Office No.^92 Secret, dated 30th September, of which the Acting Resident
has se'nt me a copy. Having known Mr. Philby for many years I should
not be surprised if his comments on the question of the frontier between
Saudi Arabia and the Aden Protectorate had been such as to give good
ground for the reports enclosed in the abovementioned despatch, since in
articles which he has written for magazines and newspapers he has openly
urged that His Majesty’s Government should confine to the narrowest pos
sible lunits their claims on behalf of the various rulers round the coasts of
Arabia. I share the opinion that Colonel Lake appears to hold, that Mr.
Philby was speaking as a private person. Sir Andrew Ryan received more
than one proof that Mr. Philby was not in the inner councils of Ibn Saud,
and it may be that Mr. Philby does not know that Ibn Baud’s extreme
claims on the southern frontier, as put forward during the recent discus
sions, do not include “all the tribes between Najran and the Hadhramaut”,
still less any tribes or areas within the Hadhramaut. I cannot believe that
Ibn Baud, while in the middle of negotiations on this point, would even
desire still less authorise Mr. Philby to make the wild statements that are
now attributed to him. If the Qatar affair is mentioned as an argument
on the other side, I would point out that Ibn Saud from the beginning
advanced claims in respect of Qatar such as he has never put forward during
the discussions about the south-western frontier. Had I had the opportu
nity I should have spoken of Mr. Philby’s activities to some representative
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the nearest, of any importance, is
at Hail. I do not wish to deal with the case in writing, if it can be avoid
ed, as that would enhance Mr. Philby’s importance, to his great satisfac
tion, and would be more apt than in conversation to give the Saudi Arab
Government the impression that we believed him to be acting under their
instructions or at least with their connivance. I have usually found Arabs
quick to diagnose Mr. Philby as obstinately wrong-headed, and if I see
Fuad Hamza or Yusuf Yasin it should be easy to refer to his wild state
ments in the Hadhramaut as obviously irresponsible though nevertheless
liable to create a regrettable impression on people under British protection
and to mar the good relations between Saudi Arabia and His Majesty’s
Government, and to elicit a repudiation. I have no doubt that Mr. Philby
will express his views freely when I see him on his reurn, and what he
says may serve as a guide to action. It is unfortunate that his return
journey is taking so long, and that the responsible Saudi officials are
scattered over the Near East, but I think that to delay is better than to take
up the question in writing before I l\ave seen either Mr. Philby or some
Saudi official with whom the matter can be discussed in a friendlv manner.
In coming to this conclusion I have not overlooked the fact that Mr. Philby
must have travelled with a considerable escort presumably provided by the
Saudi authorities, and that his talk of establishing a motor road gives his
journey something of an official character.
3 . If you wish a written protest to be made in any case you will doubt
less give me instructions by telegraph. And anyhow, if I remain cut off
from personal contact with the Saudi Foreign Affairs officials for a consi^
derable time longer, I may be forced to take up the matter in writing unless
general considerations seem to be strongly against that course.