ملف ٧٢٥١/١٩٢٠ الجزء ٣ "الجزيرة العربية: الوضع والسياسة؛ جدول أعمال اجتماعات اللجنة المشتركة بين الإدارات" [و‎‎١‎٨‎٥] (٢٦٨/٥)

(P 8577) From High Commissioner, Mesopotamia, '2nd December J920. 0465
(Repeated Foreign.)
(Received 3rd, 10 a.m.)
Clear the line.
I 4 vi, ^i? 1 ' Y ° Ur te!egraln ° f , the lst Decem ber, 3725, received 2nd December.
1. Fahad Beg receives a monthly stipend of Rs. 17,000 for the maintenance of
tribal lorces, whereivith he protects a considerable stretch of our western frontier
exj., on !3th November, his tribesmen seized a whole caravan of arms, en route from
Damascus The future Arab army may, perhaps, take over defence of this area, but
I dou ) w ic 101 it will be as ejlectual or as cheap. Payments to Fahad Beg, there
fore, are clearly distinct from subsidies which are of nature of a bribe not to attack,
3/iicl it \\ cis to tiiGSG that th-G paragraph m cjuGstion referred
As r eg a rds 11m Rashid, the situation has changed since my predecessor’s
telegram of 22nd June 1919, No 7012. My offer to meet the present Chief has met
with no satisfactoiy response, while his attitude to Ibn Sand is hostile, and I am not
prepared at present to make recommendations on his behalf.
3. As regards possible orders, I consider that subsidies should be confined so far
as practicable, to payments for services rendered or to capital investment for future
development.
4. My proposals for Bin Sand satisfy both these conditions ; nevertheless I
would not have urged them upon His Majesty’s Government at a time of such financial
stimgenc}, uere it not that we sdein confronted with a grave menace, not merely to
the peace of Mesopotamia, but rather to the interests of Great Britain in the East
and that 1 consider support of Bin Saud in such circumstances will more than justify
expenditure involved. J J