"ملف ١١/٢ يوميّات وتقارير: سلسلة الجزيرة العربية" [ظ‎‎١‎٠] (٢٢٢/٢٠)

14
with his concession in his pocket and, I am now assured, a small sum of cash down
for expenses. This has doubtless made Ibn Sa’ud and his entourage all the more
sensitive regarding two misconstructions alleged to have been placed on Mr. Philby s
article in the translation published by the A/,ram newspaper of Cairo. The Ahram
version had, according to people here, laid the Sa’udi Government open to the
accusations of having sold themselves to a group intending to create not a State
Bank, as Mr. Philby called it, but an “ international ” bank and of having
mortgaged their customs revenue. Both accusations were repudiated in a long and
indignent leading article in the Umm-al-Qura of May 12th and the second was
categorically denied in an official communique of May 11th, published in the same
issue of the Umm-al Qura. I enclose a treanslation of the communique. The
Umm-al-Qura also published a letter from Mr. Philby correcting the misconstruc
tions placed on his article.
3. The Umm-al-Qura leader is not worth reproducing as it is mostly diatribe*
The most interesting points in it are the stress laid on the importance of the distinc
tion between a state bank and an international bank, an explanation of the methods
hitherto used to pay off debts and the use of drafts on customs in that connexion and
a rather weaker attempt to rebut the suggestion that the adoption of the Bank
proposal means countenancing usury. It is claimed that the Government have paid
off more than half their debts in the last two years and the hope is expressed that,
if some of the economic projects now in view materialise, the remainder will be
settled shortly.
4. All this may amount to little more than a passing storm in a teacup but I
have though it worth recording as a sidelight on a curiously uncertain situation
in regard to the proposed bank and the hopes that hang so largely, though not exclu
sively, on the prospect of its being started.
5. I am sending copies of this despatch and enclosure to the Department of
Overseas Trade, the Government of India, His Majesty’s High Commissioner for
Egypt and to the High Commissioner for Transjordan.
Enclosure 3 to Serial No. (18).
Extract from the 11 Umm-al-Qura ” of May 12th, 1933.
Official Communique, dated 16th Muharram 1352 (11th May 1933).
It has been rumoured by some people abroad that the Government have put
in pledge their Customs Department in discharge of certain loans. The Govern
ment confirm what they have already promulgated that they had not contracted
any loan whatsoever and that they had not mortgaged the revenue of the Customs
at all.
(19)
(Received on 11th June 1933 with Political Secretary s letter o. 21, dated the 25th May
1933.)
Letter from the Colonial Office, to the India Office, No. 17963/33, dated
the 17th May 1933.
I am directed by Secretary Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister to transmit to you, to be
laid before Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare, a copy of a despatch from the Resident at
Aden regarding the succession to the Sultanate of Lahej.
2. Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister agrees with the Resident’s views as to the atti
tude which he should adopt in the matter, and, subject to Sir Samuel Hoare s
concurrence, he proposes to approve the course of action suggested in paragraph
13 of the Resident’s despatch.
3. A similar letter is being sent to the Foreign Office and Air Ministry*
*
*
Enclosure to Serial No. (19).
Despatch from the Resident, Aden, to the Colonial Office, !No. 65, dated the
22nd March 1933.
I have the honour to refer to the recent political events in Lahej in connection
with the succession to the Sultanate, that have been reported briefly in Political
Intelligence Summary, paragraph 2260, et seq. (File No. 26-N/33).
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