File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎384r] (776/834)

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or that religion has affected his mind.” He claims to have the
Ikhwan entirely in hand, but at times his actions and his features
betray a feeling that his responsibility is too great for him.
Ibn Saud has an affection for everything British and a
pathetic trust in His Majesty’s Government, but he considers
we have disappointed him.
“ If you British would only allow me to carve out my
fortune by the sword,” he said to Major Dickson, “ I would have
the Hejaz in a week and Syria in two months, and then what a
friend you English would have in me ! ”
He upbraided His Majesty’s Government for neglecting him,
the true Sultan and leader of the Arabs, and for appointing the
Emir of. the Hejaz, who was until lately a mere servant of the
Turks, as a so-called King. He was, he added, receiving offers
of support from all sides—Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ,
Shammar and Anezeh Arabs, and even the people of Medina
and Mecca.
Ibn Saud gets his Syrian newa from Mohammed 'Abdullah
el Bassam, of Damascus, who appears to write to him regularly.
It is alleged that a good deal of Turkish ammunition has arrived
in Nejd from the same source in recent times.
With regard to Khurma and Tarabah, Ibn Saud asserted
that the people of Nejd would never give up those places ; they
had always been in the hands of his family. The inhabitants
would rather die than submit to the yoke of Mecca. During
the Turkish occupation of the Hejaz the towns were not included
in the Hejaz province, nor were taxes demanded there by the
Turkish Government. How then could Husein, an ex-subject
of the Turks, claim more than his late masters ? Tarabah,
he stated, is a town of strategic importance necessary to Nejd,
as it commands the roads to the Yemen and Dawasir.
Ibn Sand’s main requests were that King Husein should be
restrained by us, and that the latter should be made to open the
Pilgrimage to Nejd citizens this year, but he left Major Dickson
with the following characteristic advice. The British Govern
ment should grant Syria independence if they could possibly do
so, but if not, then they should rule it with a firm hand. In any
case, we should never let the Arabs have possession of Beyrouth.
We should beware of giving independence to Iraq, and on no
account should we listen to the Nationalist screams of the
Egyptians, who, he said, had been disturbers of the peace ever
since the days of Pharaoh.
After perusing Major Dickson’s accounts of his interviews
with the Emir of Nejd one is struck by the similarity of his per-