"ملف 61/11 IX (D 159) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [و‎‎٤] (٣٩١/١٨)

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EASTERN (Arabia).
CONFIDENT 1A1
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1 '"confidential RECORDS
March 14, 1939.
Section 2.
[E 1879/735/25] Copy No. | Q
/Sir i2. Bullard to Viscount Halifax.—(Received March 14.)
(No. 29.)
My Lord, Jedda, February 18, 1939.
IN my telegram No. 209, dated the 27th December, I reported that, according
to a statement made to me by Fuad Bey, the German Minister at Bagdad was
coming to Jedda for the pilgrim season. I now have the honour to send some
details about this visit.
2. Although the application of Dr. Grobba for permission to make a direct
flight to Jedda was refused by the Saudi Government, he did, in fact, arrive in
an aeroplane, on the 21st January. The machine was a three-engined Junker
low-wing monoplane of the Luft-Hansa, and the chief pilot, according to
Dr. Grobba, was one of the best German pilots, with a record of over 2 million
miles. Dr. Grobba said that he had hoped to fly direct to Jedda, but had been
obliged to abandon this plan because there was no place on the direct route
where the machine could refuel, and he had therefore flown to Assouan, where
they had taken on enough fuel for the flight to Jedda and back. The absence
of any refuelling station on the way must have provided the Saudi Government
with an easy pretext for rejecting a proposal which they would probably have
been unwilling to accept in any case.
3. Two journalists arrived with Dr. Grobba. but they returned with the
aeroplane three days later. Dr. Grobba told me that one of them had intended
to stay for a fortnight, but finding no copy he returned to Cairo. He has since
said that in spite of the shortness of their stay the journalists propose to write
" all sorts of things."
4. The only secretary who accompanied Dr. Grobba was M. W. G. Steffen,
who is his Arabic interpreter. M. Steffen talks Arabic very well, and also reads
and writes it. I learned from Dr. Grobba that M. Steffen was a Seventh Day
Adventist missionary for many years, in Egypt, Transjordan (? Mosul), and
that having become dissatisfied with that life he joined the staff of the German
Embassy in Bagdad. M. Steffen wears the Nazi badge; Dr. Grobba does not.
5. Dr. Grobba was at pains from the beginning to talk about the exclusively
commercial object of his mission. He professed, however, to be much annoyed at
a newspaper report that the German Government had sent him to offer assistance
to the Saudi Government in the development of their oil and mineral resources,
and described it as a Jewish invention. In his last talk with me Dr. Grobba
spoke about the possibility of exporting German goods to Saudi Arabia either
on payment or under a system of barter. He also said that he had collected
(though with a considerable reduction) a sum of money due to a German firm
which no longer exists in Jedda, for tyres and other goods supplied many years
ago. I am dealing with these commercial matters in a separate despatch.
6. Although Dr. Grobba arrived on the 21st January, it was not until the
11th February that he was able to present his credentials. The Viceroy, the
Amir Faisal, being absent when he arrived, it was decided that he, and the new
French Minister, should wait until Ibn Saud came to Jedda after the pilgrimage.
This arrangement was sensible, but Dr. Grobba seemed surprised and slightly
annoyed when I mentioned that the King had asked me to meet him at Shumaisi
on the 27th January—an interview which I reported in my telegram No. 16 of
the 29th January.
7. On the 16th February Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, acting, as he said, on
instructions from the King, gave me an account of Dr. Grobba's interviews with
him and with the King. I have given the gist of what was said, in my telegram
No. 25, dated the 18th February. Dr. Grobba claimed to have no object except
to establish friendly relations with Saudi Arabia and to increase German exports,
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