Office of the Historian

883.79690F/9–444: Telegram

The Appointed Minister to Saudi Arabia (Eddy) to the Secretary of State

Jidda, September 4, 1944—9 a.m.
[Received 8:05 p.m.]

265. Received reply from Saudi Arabian Government to Legation note July 29 requesting on behalf of Commanding General [Page 663] USAFIME11 permission to make aerial and engineering surveys for direct air route Cairo to Dhahran.

Summary as follows:

1.
Proposed air route raises serious problems. Studies and discussions to remove great obstacles must precede decision to grant permission or not.
2.
Before decision can be made to permit surveys or not Saudi Arabian Government must know detailed survey program: Exactly when the surveys would take place; whether planes will land; whence they come, which direction they go, whether each returns each time to point of takeoff. Furthermore, route should be shifted further to north, if, as appears on map furnished, it would pass close to Jauf, Tayma and Hayil. End summary.

Complete text12 follows by air pouch.

Sent Department, repeated Cairo for Giles.

Eddy
  1. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Giles, Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East (USAFIME).↩
  2. Text not printed; in his covering despatch 1, September 4, the Minister in Saudi Arabia said: “It would appear that careful and detailed negotiations with the Saudi Arabian Government will be necessary before progress can be expected in this important matter.” (883.79690F/9–444)↩