"ملف 8/15 سلسلة الجزيرة العربية - ١٩٣٣-١٩٣٩" [و‎‎٢‎٠‎٨] (٤٣٤/٤١٥)

23
t s
» a
Enclosure in Foreign Office covering letter, dated the 16th February 1938.
Cypher telegram from Sir R. Bullard (Jedda), No. 19, dated the 13th
January 1938.
Important.
My telegram No. 12.
Circular received from Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks foreign
missions to communicate only with the Ministry adding that it has been
observed that on some occasions formalities take place between certain Lega
tions and other offices. This is presumably the one to which Fuad referred.
I understood him to say that the reasons for the circular would appear in
it but I may have been mistaken. [Gp. undec.] discreet approach seems
preferable, and in any case I have no doubt Saudi authorities are serious in
their intention to restrict Italian propaganda. Amongst measures men
tioned by Fuad were prevention of use of posts and telephones for propa
ganda and orders to Saudi officials not to mix with members of foreign
missions except on official occasions.
( 20 )
(Received on the 2nd April 1938, with Political Secretary' s letter No. 11,
dated the 17th March 1938.)
Enclosure in Foreign Office covering letter dated the 15th March 1938.
[E.-1099/10/31.]
Letter from Sir R. Bullard, to Mr. Eden.—(Received February 28),
(No. 21, Confidential), dated Jedda, February 2, 1938.
As you are aware, it is extremely difficult to find out what people are
thinking in this country. Contact with the local inhabitants, which has
always been rare, has ceased altogether since the promulgation of the orders
designed to circumscribe Italian propaganda on which I reported in my
despatch No. 8, dated the 17th January, 1938, and in any case discipline is
too strictly maintained by the King for Saudi subjects to speak freely to
members of foreign Legations on lines which he might not approve. For
these reasons I think it worth while to transmit to you the attached extract
from a conversation which I had recently with M. Naidyonoff, the “White’’
Russian pilot employed by the Saudi Government.
2. The conversation arose out of a projected flight of three Saudi planes
to Wejh, which has been the subject of discussion for several weeks. One
is to be piloted by the Italian, Major Ciccu, a second by M. Naidyonoff,
and the third by a Saudi, and the rest of the Saudi pilots are to be carried
as passengers. The party would stay some ten days in Wejh, I gather,
before returning. The start has been postponed several times for lack of
one thing or another, and it has now been put off again because Major
Ciccu is ill. When speaking to me about this flight on the 1st February,
M. Naidyonoff said that he was thinking of giving up his post here because
he did not want to be involved in hostilities. A few days before he had
spoken of this possibility and had said that, whatever happened, he him
self, as an officer who served in the Denikin army, would never take part in
hostilities against the British. On both occasions I deprecated any talk
about hostilities involving Saudi Arabia and, indeed, all talk about the
imminence of war, but last night M. Naidyonoff seemed greatly disturbed.
As will be seen from the enclosed note, his feelings are based on nothing
more solid than the attitude of the commandant of the Jedda forces, Said-
al-Kurdi, who admits that his anti-British policy is not that of is master,
Ibn Saud. But it is interesting to hear of the influence which the views
of an unpopular man have here, because, they are anti-British and pan-
Arab, and thus coincide with those of the younger Saudis, and to learn