"٢٢\١٦ بعثة مستر فيلبي إلى نجد - ١٩١٨." [و‎‎٢‎٦‎٥] (٥٣٨/٥٢٩)

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(z£s;
Lr. x^hilby's exolsaiation on item Ko.46...
item 46 relating to the furchase of liquors etc.s-
I m inclined to agree vdth the Secretary of State that,
considering that the personnel of the Mission after the lirst six
reeks or so consisted of myself alone, the supply of spirituous
liquors charged for in my accounts was excessive. It is therefore
with pardonable satisfaction that I can assure him- and a reference
to p. 128 Vol. I of “The Heart of .irabia' 1 and other passages therein
bear me out in that assurance - that in point of fact the sum total
of spirituous liquor consumed by the Mission during twelve months
was only half a bottle of brandy. I would ask him nevertheless to
condone the supply of liquor laid in at the inception of the
Mission on the ground that the latter was originally desigiei to
comprise a British personnel of five or six members including Lr.
(after.’aria Brigadier (leneral and now oir Holand) Storrs. Ly
solicitude for the health of my colleagues amid the rigours of an
Arabian climate is the sole ground on which I can seek to justify
so generous a provision of comforts at the expense of His Majesty’s
Government and my only regret is that I am unable to throw light on
the ultimate fate of that cargo except that it was accidentally ,
discovered some time in 1918 in the cellars of the British Agency
at Kuwait. For all I know to the contrary it may still be there.
The amount covered by this item is not Rs. 157/1/6 as suggested
in the Colonial Office comments but, I regret to say, as much as
Rs. 199/12/- and I may add that the charge would of course have
been set off against travelling allowances had the latter Deen
claimed.
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