Miscellaneous correspondence, reports, maps and other papers concerning the Middle East [‎70r] (140/220)

To—
Bt. Lt.-Col. A. T. Wilson, C.M.G., C.I.E., D.S.O.,
Officiatijig Civil Commissioner for the
Occupied Territories in Iraq,
Baghdad.
No. M-218. Dated Baghdad, the 12th Nov.. 1018.
Sir,
I have the honour to submit a report on the operations of the Mission,
which I was privileged to conduct into Central Arabia to treat with His
Excellency the Imam, Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Bahman ibn Faisal al Saud,
K.C.I.E., the ruler of Najd and its dependencies, of certain matters of mutual
import to himself and the British Government in pursuance of the instruc
tions of His Majesty’s Government communicated to Sir Percy Cox in a
telegram, dated the 20th October, 1917, from the Secretary of State for India.
My reports cover a period of almost exactly one calendar year, beginning
with the Mission’s departure from Baghdad on the 29th October, 1917, and
•ending on the 1st November, 1918, when I arrived at Baghdad on my return
from Central Arabia on the closing down of the Mission’s operations.
1 have deemed it convenient to abandon any attempt at a chronological
narrative of the Mission’s work in favour of a full and separate discussion of
the various problems which have called for consideration during the period
under report. Furthermore considerations of space have deterred me from
including in this review any detailed account of my journeyings in Arabia or
of the geographical and other incidental results obtained in the course thereof
except in so far as may be necessary to elucidate the matters with which the
Mission was more directly concerned. I have already contributed brief
accounts of some of my journeys for publication in the Arab Bulletin, and I
look forward now to a period of leisure wherein to sort out and arrange in a
form suitable for publication the copious notes which I have collected on a
variety of interesting subjects during my long sojourn in Arabia.
2. Previous Relations between Britain and Najd.
Prior to the outbreak of the Great War there had for obvious reasons been
but little official intercourse between the British authorities and the rulers of
Najd. Apart from the fanatical inhospitality and aloofness of the people
themselves the long-standing friendship of Britain and Turkey precluded any
thing like political recognition by the former of the latter’s rebellious and
independent dependency.
Indeed the first occasion on which a British Officer visited Najd in an
official capacity was when 99 years ago Lt. Sadlier, deputed for the purpose
by the Indian Government, traversed the devastated territories of the \\ ah-
habi Empire with the sole object of conveying to the destroyer the congratula
tions of Government on his handiwork and of urging him to take drastic pre-
•cautions against a revival of the Wahhabi power. Fortunately Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
and those for whom he acted were not men to take good advice, and if the
purpose of Lt. Sadlier’s mission ever became known in Arabia it had certainly
been forgotten before the next British Mission visited Riyadh.
That was in 1865 when Colonel Lewis Pelly, who, as Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , had been called upon to deal with matters arising out of
the piracy and slave trade still practised on the Arabian shore of the Persian
Gulf, decided on his own initiative to visit the Wahhabi Monarch with a
small informed Mission. His reception by Fasal ibn Saud and his Wazir Minister. was
not encouraging; and the British Mission returned to the coast being conscious
that, though much had been learned, little had been accomplished in the direc
tion of establishing permanent friendly relations with the Wahhabi Court.
There ensued a long break in official intercourse between Britain and
Najd, whose fortunes during the interval were rudely shaken by the aggression
of the newly risen Rashid dynasty at Hail. Riyadh and all its provinces were
occupied by Muhammad ibn Rashid and the Saud family sought refuge at
Kuwait and elsewhere on the coast where they remained in exile until 1902.
The death of Muhammad ibn Rashid in 1898 and the recovery of Riyadh and
its provinces four years later by their present ruler were followed by a period
of consolidation during which the ambitions of Ibn Saud in the direction of
Hasa and the difficulties in which he became involved with the Turks disposed
him to look with friendly eyes on the power which he had learned to know as
the protector of Kuwait, and Captain W. H. C. Shakespear, I.A., Political