"ملف 61/11 V (D 95) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [ظ‎‎٢‎١‎٦] (٥٣٠/٤٤٩)

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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
little dhow with one gun on it) captured another dhow at 'Aqabah
in which they found a box containing a secret cipher and incrimi
natory letters from high officials of the Amir 'Abdullah. In
one of the letters there was written, "You must press on and
take either Muwaila or Dhaba or we cannot send you any more
money or rifles." Shortly afterwards, under strong pressure,
the Amir 'Abdullah published a proclamation to say that he
strongly disapproved of the affair, but one knows that these
proclamations are not infrequently used in diplomatic circles to
get out of an unfortunate faux pas. Soon after he blotted his
copybook again by giving an interview to an Indian notable,
a report of which was published in the vernacular press of Egypt
and Palestine, in which he said that he would never rest until
Ibn Sa'ud was turned out of the Hejaz. Possibly some of you
may have seen the article in The Times of July 14th, 1932. This
gave great offence to Ibn Sa'ud. None of the facts nor the
implications in it were correct.
From all the evidence in his possession it is not surprising
that Ibn Sa'ud does not feel favourably disposed towards the
Amir 'Abdullah. It is difficult to see how it is possible for
there to be peace and freedom from raiding one way and the
other on the frontier, so long as the Amir 'Abdu'llah remains
ruler of Transjordan. In view of the fact that Great Britain
has accepted the mandate for Transjordan and is responsible for
the foreign policy of that country, it is not to be wondered at
that Ibn Sa'ud looks with a certain amount of suspicion on
Great Britain. He may well view with amazement the appli
cation of the doctrine of laissez faire by Great Britain to the
anti-Sa'udian antics of her protege.
The Akhwan are the third important factor in Arabian
politics. Mr. Philby numbers them at about 50,000 fighting
men, but Ameen Rihani puts the number at about 73,000. For
years throughout all the Arabic-speaking countries the Akhwan
have been a bogey with which to frighten not only the children
but also the grown-ups, but I think myself they are little better
than a myth. They are of poor physique. They are certainly
fanatical and brutal fighters, fanatical, perhaps, in view of the
comforting Wahhabi tenet that if you are killed in battle you
will enjoy a large number of houris in Paradise, whilst if you
survive you will share in the loot; brutal, as is shown by the
fact that they put to death every man, woman and child from
Muwaila to the Transjordan frontier while they were " chas
tising " Ibn Rifada. For months afterwards there was not a