Coll 6/67(4) 'Boundaries of South Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎115r] (229/843)

2. To show that the journey had originally no concern with politics, he
could state that he had written all he had intended to say about the Hadhramaut
before he started back from Shibam, i.e., before the breakdown of one of his cars
compelled him to go to Mukalla to try to get a new back-axle. The chapter was
colourless, in spite of the fact that he had ‘ ‘ seen a lot of things ' ’ about which
he might have written. But after the reception he received when he applied to
the Resident at Aden for assistance he had changed his mind. Having been
attacked, he proposed to defend himself, and he would add chapters to his forth
coming book which would tell the world the facts about the Aden Protectorate.
He was prepared to give His Majesty’s Minister all these facts, but he also
proposed to give them to the Saudi Government.
3. The criticism directed against his visit to Shabwa was entirely
unjustified. His journey was on all fours with that of Bertram Thomas across
the Rub-al-Khali. He was quite right in claiming that, apart from the
Hadhramaut, his journey lay in unexplored, undemarcated territory. To claim
Shabwa and those parts for the Aden Protectorate was fantastic, for no
protection was afforded. Nor could the Aden authorities claim the virtue of
leaving the people thereabouts to manage their own affairs, for they bombed them.
The Aden attitude towards Shabwa was exactly like that of the Italians towards
Walwal at the beginning of the Italo-Ethiopian dispute, and British policy was
no more honest than that of Italy had been. The British were trying to expand
at the expense of the Arabs.
4. His policy remained what it had always been, viz., to try to obtain for
the Arabs what they were promised early in the Great War. He had challenged
His Majesty’s Government to publish the promises made then (the McMahon
correspondence), but with their habitual cowardice they had refused. There were
plenty of copies in Arabic to be had, but the English correspondence ought to be
published. He would tell His Majesty’s Minister a “ secret ” : he used to possess
copies of the correspondence in English, given to him by T. E. Lawrence, but they
were stolen from him by a clerk of his in Jedda.
5. He was interested to hear (for the first time) that the King of the Yemen
had protested to Ibn Sand, alleging that the expedition had entered Yemen
territory at Jauf and Marib. He wondered how the King had heard about it.
In point of fact, he had not gone to Marib, but had taken photographs and
bearings from a height from which it was visible. (Mr. Philby evaded, or at least
did not answer, the question whether the height in question was in Yemen
territory.)
6. No. it was not quite correct to say that he was asking for more for
Ibn Saud than Ibn Saud was asking for himself, though it was near the truth.
What he wanted was the establishment of the promised Arab independence in
the Arab Peninsula and the elimination of any foreign rule which conflicted with
the promises.
Mr. Philby claimed to know all about the British and Saudi proposals for
the southern frontier of Saudi Arabia and to have the two lines marked on maps
in his possession. When His Majesty’s Minister said that in that case he must
have known that Shabwa lay well to the south of the proposed Saudi line, he said
that the position of Shabwa on the map was a long way out, but he did not deny
that Shabwa was even farther to the south than the map shows, and therefore at
a greater distance from the extreme limits claimed by Ibn Saud than appeared
from the map.