IOR/R/15/5/121

Correspondence and other papers relating to visits made by Europeans and Americans to Saudi Arabia, and specifically to Riyadh:

• A visit made in 1937 by Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, former Political Agent at Kuwait, reportedly in his capacity as a representative of the Kuwait Oil Company. The papers include English translations of press reports of the visit as reported in various Arab newspapers, including the Baghdad newspaper Al-Kifah, the Cairo newspaper Al-Mukattam [Al-Muqattam] and the Wakalat-ul-Sharq Al-Arabia (ff 3-16).
• Dickson’s request to the Political Resident to visit the Ruler of Saudi Arabia Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] in December 1938, and the Ruler of Kuwait’s [Shaikh Aḥmad al-Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ] strong objection to the visit (ff 18-28).
• Lord Alington’s [Captain Napier George Henry Sturt] visit to Ibn Saud in April 1939, including notes on his visit, and demi-official letters exchanged between the Political Agent at Kuwait (Major Charles Crawshaw Galloway) and the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle) commenting on Alington’s description of Ibn Saud (ff 27-37).
• Correspondence dated 1942 between the Political Agent at Kuwait and the United States military relating to unauthorised entry into Saudi Arabia by foreigners (ff 41-42).
• A note written by the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield), dated 5 April 1943, on wartime conditions in Saudi Arabia, based on reports received by Dr Harold Storm and Gerrit Dirk Van Peursem, both of the American Mission at Bahrain, following their medical tour of Saudi Arabia (f 44).
• Correspondence dated August 1943 relating to a visit to Ibn Saud by Lieutenant-Colonel Harold B Hoskins, personal envoy of US President Roosevelt (ff 45-54).