IOR/L/PS/10/387/1

Part 4 primarily concerns British policy towards Bin Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd], following the outbreak of the First World War. It includes the following:

• discussion regarding Bin Saud's relations with the Ottoman government, and the need for the British to secure Bin Saud's goodwill, especially in the event of the Ottoman government entering the war on the German side;
• details of Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear's mission (as a political officer on special duty) to meet with Bin Saud, with the aim of ensuring that, in the event of hostilities between Britain and the Ottomans, no assistance is offered to the latter by Bin Saud;
• translated copies of letters from Shaikh Mubarak [Shaikh Mubarak bin Ṣabāḥ Āl Ṣabāḥ], Ruler of Kuwait, to Bin Saud, urging the latter to side with the British Government;
• details of a proposed preliminary treaty between the British and Bin Saud;
• reports of Captain Shakespear's death;
• reports on Bin Saud's military engagements against Bin Rashid [Saʿūd bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Rashīd];
• a copy of a draft of a preliminary treaty between the British government and Bin Saud;
• details of proposed gifts from the British to Bin Saud of arms and ammunition captured from the Ottomans, plus a £20,000 loan.

The principal correspondents are the following:

• Secretary of State for India [Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe];
• Viceroy of India [Charles Hardinge];
• Foreign Office;
• India Office;
• War Office;
• Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India, Thomas William Holderness;
• Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Zachariah Cox;
• Political Agent, Kuwait (Lieutenant-Colonel William George Grey);
• Secretary to the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department [Alfred Hamilton Grant];
• Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart George Knox (on special duty in the absence of the Political Resident);
• Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear;
• Bin Saud.