Page 36 - Arabian Studies (II)

26 Arabian Studies II

II.M.’s Political Agent. As 1 had not taken over officially I naturally
kept rather in the background.
1 remember a tale that went the rounds then about some of the
Ikhwan with him who asked that, like the bodyguard, they might be
given new clothes for the visit. Ibn Saud said certainly, but that as
their clothes looked good they must qualify. Take them down to the
sea and hold them under water for a few minutes’, he said to the
guards. The Ikhwan quickly changed their minds.

Outbreak of the 1939 War
I was on leave in England in the summer of 1939 and was told that,
as in 1914, the Political Agent Kuwait, now myself, was to go, on the
outbreak of war, to be with Ibn Saud. In 1914 it had been first
Captain Shakespear, who was killed in a fight of Ibn Saud against the
forces of Hail backed by the Turks, then Colonel Hamilton,
(subsequently Lord Belhaven), and later in the war by H. St. J.
B. Philby, then of the Indian Civil Service.
I left for Egypt, en route to join Ibn Saud, by the first convoy of
the war from Glasgow. Since Ibn Saud was travelling among his tribes
when I reached Egypt, it was late in the autumn before I reached
Jedda. One of the first things I noticed on reaching Riyadh was a
new clock-tower and that a large number of soldiers in uniform were
on duty outside the Palace, then something quite novel.

His counsellors

Among the Counsellors in Ibn Saud’s employ were educated men
from the surrounding Arab countries. He used them constantly to
provide him with information about those countries, their leading
politicians, and to research for him what they did not know. One was
a librarian and archivist. One of these men had been sent to Germany
just before the second War to go into the question of buying arms,
mostly rifles. He gave an order for a large quantity and came back
full of admiration for the German Army, which he had been shown
on reviews and manoeuvres. From his point of view I do not see how
he could have been otherwise than deeply impressed. He thought
them unbeatable and said so repeatedly on his return to Arabia.

Information and Maps
i
I was supposed to give Ibn Saud specially selected information which
was to be sent to me by the Foreign Office as it came out from the
new Ministry of Information. I remember asking before I left that it