IOR/R/15/1/571

The volume consists of letters, telegrams, reports, and newspaper cuttings relating to Saudi Arabia. Much of the correspondence is made up of regular reports sent from the British Legation in Jeddah to the Foreign Office in London. The remaining correspondence is between the two aforementioned places and also: the Political Residency in Bushire, the Political Agencies in Bahrain and Kuwait, the India Office in London, the Government of India, Ibn Sa'ud, and Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister.

There are a range of subjects covered in the volume, including:

• Saudi Arabian foreign relations, specifically with Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, and Britain;
• a new customs tariff and the reduction of imports into the Kingdom;
• Saudi Arabian concerns about the situation in Palestine;
• the internal financial situation;
• the acitivities of the Saudi Arabia Mining Syndicate;
• the prospect of Yemen signing the Treaty of Arab Brotherhood and Alliance;
• Anglo-Italian relations, including Italian propoganda in the region;
• religious policing in the country;
• a visit to Ibn Sa'ud in Riyadh by Harold Dickson, the Political Agent in Kuwait, and the negative reaction to it in the Arab Press;
• the restoration of the Hejaz Railway;
• discontent with Saudi rule in the Hejaz due to preceived financial exploitation, including details of the Egyptian-based group 'The Friends of Hejaz';
• the death of Ibn Sa'ud's nephew Emir Khalid ibn Mohammed in a car accident;
• new regulations for foreigners living in Saudi Arabia;
• the deterioration of Ibn Sa'ud's health.

Notable in the volume is a report (folios 87-95) on an interview with Ibn Sa'ud by Reader Bullard, the British Minister in Jeddah at the time, a revised report (folios 135-136) on the heads of foreign missions in Jeddah, and the letter exchange (folios 165, 171-180) between Ibn Sa'ud and Neville Chamberlain.