123 K 632/447
The King of Saudi Arabia ( Ibn Saud ) to President Roosevelt 14
In the Name of Allah The Compassionate, the Merciful.
Your Excellency: The Minister of the United States to My Government, Mr. Kirk, carried to me Your Excellency’s letter which was issued from the White House—Washington—on February 13, 1942. I was greatly pleased by its contents.
[Page 567]I thank Your Excellency for having delegated the agricultural mission—under the supervision of Mr. K. S. Twitchell—to help in the survey of the lands and to prepare projects for the improvement of agriculture in the lands of Saudi Arabia. My Government has accepted with thanks the decision of Your Excellency’s Government to bear the expenses of this mission. The members of this mission will be accorded all hospitality by my Government and will find all means of help in the execution of their mission which is vital for my country.
I received with pleasure Your Excellency’s greetings and the greetings of the people and the Government of the United States of America, to my person, my Government and to the people of the Arab countries. I beg in turn that you should accept my hearty greetings and the greetings of my people and Government to Your Excellency, your dear people and your Government with whom we share—as we share with the American people—the high feelings which Your Excellency expressed and which clearly show that the love of liberty and its seeking are among the most important objectives of our two peoples and Governments.
This war, as I personally believe, started at its beginning because of certain factors the most important among which was probably the engagement of some of the Governments and people in purely material life and their forsaking the spiritual and religious life which, among other things, necessitates working for the establishment of long peace and even of a permanent peace in this world—which I hope will be realized by the result of the bloody battles which are taking place in most parts of the world today. There is no doubt that every responsible person has a duty for the attainment of this high and honorable aim.
Please accept [etc.]
- Transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Egypt in his despatch No. 8, Saudi Arabian Series, May 18; received May 28.↩