IOR/L/PS/12/2082

This file relates to Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and the future of Arabia in the event of his death.

The file largely consists of copies of Foreign Office correspondence, which have been forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India. Also included are copies of correspondence addressed to the India Office and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle, succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior).

The correspondence begins with the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf's response to the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India's remark that British influence in the Middle East seems largely to depend on the life of one man: Ibn Saud.

Related matters discussed in the correspondence include the following:

• The effect that Ibn Saud's death, or fall from power, might have on Kuwait.
• The designation of Amir Saud [Sa‘ūd bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd] as Ibn Saud's heir apparent in 1933.
• Rumours of tense relations between Amir Saud and his brother Feisal [Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Sa'ud].
• Arab public opinion on Ibn Saud, following the Saudi-Yemeni war.
• Reports of Ibn Saud and Amir Saud having been attacked by would-be assassins in Mecca in 1935.
• Amir Saud's visit to India for medical treatment in 1940.
• Reports of the arrest of ninety persons suspected of being involved in a plot to assassinate Ibn Saud in 1940.

Other prominent correspondents include the following: the Political Agent, Kuwait (Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, succeeded by Gerald Simpson de Gaury); the Political Agent, Bahrain (Hugh Weightman); the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan; Sir Reader William Bullard; Hugh Stonehewer Bird); His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda (Albert Spencer Calvert); officials of the India Office, the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, and the Government of India's External Affairs Department.

In addition to correspondence the file includes the following:

• A report by the Political Resident entitled 'The Future of Arabia', which discusses the present position of Ibn Saud and how Arabia might look without him.
• Extracts from Kuwait intelligence summaries.
• A copy of a report produced in 1937 by the Political Agent at Kuwait, Gerald Simpson de Gaury, on the history of the Shammar tribe and the Ibn Rashid [Āl Rashīd] family, which includes as enclosures a table of the Shammar confederation and a genealogical table of the Al Rashid family, both of which are printed in Arabic and English.
• A copy of a report, produced in 1938 by de Gaury, on the 'Anaza [‘Aniza] tribe, which includes a tribal table of the tribe.

The file includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence.