مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [و‎‎٢‎٠] (٥٤٠/٤٠)

11
[18903] d* 3
33. The visit of Nuri Pasha’s representative to Ibn Sand must have coin
cided with this interview, though the King said nothing on the subject. The
representative was Muwaffaq Bey-ai-Allousy, formerly Iraq Consul at Beirut.
Nuri Pasha subsequently explained that A1 Allousy had been sent to dispel Ibn
Baud’s apprehensions concerning tendentious reports that Nuri was to negotiate
a settlement on the basis of a confederation of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq
with Jewish immigration into all these territories. But A1 Allousy evidently
discussed Nuri’s own proposals as well, since Fuad Hamza asked His Majesty’s
Minister later on what he thought of them.
34. The King again spoke his mind on Palestine to Sir R. Bullard at
Shumaisi on the 13th January, on the occasion of the visit of Lord Belhaven. He
made the following points : partition might be imposed for a time by force, but
sooner or later the Arabs would rise against it; he had informed the restive ulema
of Nejd that he would never help those who attacked His Majesty’s Government;
the enmity of the Arabs to the Jews was based on considerations of honour, of
religion, and even existence. Finally, the King said that he regarded himself
as a “ member of the British Cabinet,” and was shortly sending a memorandum
to them setting forth his views from the point of view of his friendship for them.
35. The memorandum reached the legation on the 17th January. It was
very lengthy and diffuse. Ibn Saud began by reaffirming his friendship for Great
Britain, but said that he saw the breach between His Majesty’s Government and
the Arab world becoming wider as the result of the policy of repression. He did
not venture to give detailed advice, but he suggested three things : (1) Jewish
immigration to be stopped until a solution could be reached, or at any rate for two
years; (2) sales of land to cease during the same period; and (3) a political amnesty
to be granted to improve the atmosphere and encourage a feeling of co-operation.
In conclusion the King offered to draw up detailed plans after ascertaining the
opinion of reliable persons.
36. A sidelight on the feelings of some of Ibn Saud’s subjects about
Palestine was afforded by a report from the Russian instructor to the air force,
who told the Minister that the firebrand Nationalist who is in charge of the air
force in Jedda, Sa’id A1 Kurdi, longed to take his aeroplanes for a flight along the
Transjordan frontier, in order that the tribes could see that the Saudis had an
air force. The result, according to Kurdi, would be that the Transjordan tribes
would rise and join their oppressed brethren in Palestine; the Saudi tribes would
then join too, and Ibn Saud would be forced to allow the movement to go on, or
even to encourage it.
37. There was no doubt that the Palestine question was gradually forcing
the King into a position in which he could not be as helpful as he would like to
be to His Majesty’s Government and Sir R. Bullard felt bound to utter a warning.
Unless, he said, the situation soon turned more to the advantage of the Arabs, it
could not be guaranteed that Ibn Saud would not become less and less friendly.
38. Nuri Pasha’s views, as expressed at the Foreign Office on the 17th
January, were that the Arabs were getting quite out of control; they really feared
Jewish domination. Restriction of the immigration of Jews, in such a way that
they would remain a minority, coupled with the continuance of the mandate, was
his solution. We have no evidence that he mentioned to Ibn Saud his other scheme
for the formation of a sort of commonwealth of Arab nations, under a single King,
and there is little chance that Ibn Saud would have accepted such a dubious
proposal.
39. Pilgrimage day, which fell on the 10th February, passed without any
untoward manifestations about Palestine, though vast quantities of propaganda
literature had found their way into the country. The greater part of this volume
of paper was, according to Fuad Hamza, confiscated and destroyed by order of
the King : but specimens must have got into many hands, and the floor of a hotel
close to the Minister’s residence was littered with such pamphlets.
40. It is believed that a consignment of gramophone records bearing anti-
British propaganda about Palestine were confiscated by the authorities, but in
December two such records came to the notice of the legation, when they were
found to be of Syrian manufacture. It will be remembered that gramophones are
still officially prohibited in Saudi Arabia.