890F.20 Mission/15: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State 5
[Received June 9—2:48 p.m.]
4615. See the Department’s 3489, May 1, 5 p.m. The Embassy has received the following letter dated June 8 from Sir Maurice Peterson:
[“]I am writing in reply to your letter of the 2nd May, communicating the substance of a telegram from the State Department concerning military and financial advisers to Saudi Arabia. I note that the State Department accepts the suggestion we made to Mr. Wallace Murray that we should propose to Ibn Saud a joint British-American military mission to Saudi Arabia with a British officer at the head, but that the State Department’s approval is subject to the condition that any economic or financial mission that may be sent to that country at the request of Ibn Saud should be headed by an American.
I think I should let you know that our latest information indicates that it may be very difficult to persuade Ibn Saud to accept any Christian officers at all. Should this prove to be the case, we will consult with the State Department whether it is better for us to supply Moslem officers only, or whether the whole idea of a military mission should be dropped. I think that our conversations in London showed conclusively that in this matter our interests and the American interests run entirely parallel and we shall discuss it with you with complete frankness.
I presume that the condition regarding an economic or financial mission does not apply to the request which Ibn Saud made to us last March to be provided with a Sunni-Moslem financial adviser to help [Page 705] him with expert advice in reorganizing his country’s finances? (It is apparently essential that the financial expert shall be a Moslem owing to the Saudi Arabian Treasury, where he will have to work, being situated in Mecca.) There has not yet been any question of an economic or financial mission being sent to Saudi Arabia so far as we know, and I am not quite sure how far such a proposal would meet with Ibn Saud’s approval. But if and when the question of sending an economic mission arises, we should be inclined to agree that the leadership of it should be determined according to which party has the preponderant interest in Saudi Arabian economy and finance at the time.
As you will recall, we agreed with Mr. Wallace Murray that ‘the larger financial and supply problems of Saudi Arabia ought to be dealt with as far as possible on a joint basis in consultation between the two Governments’. We entirely adhere to this. I hope you will agree, moreover, that we can each support the experts which either of us select for these important places where we have joint interests, and can have confidence in their willingness to further our common interests. We for our part have, as Mr. Wallace Murray recognized, done everything in our power to support Dr. Millspaugh6 and make the Persians understand that he and his staff have our full and entire confidence. Similarly we trust that when the Middle East Supply Centre send a representative to Jidda (I understand that Colonel Coneybear, an American, is their latest appointment) he may count on the assistance of both our Legations and that he may be correspondingly counted upon to further the joint interests of both our countries. The same considerations should, I think, apply to the work of any British or American experts whom our two Governments may agree to send to advise Ibn Saud.
Would you very kindly communicate this reply to the State Department; if, as I hope, we can agree on this basis then we will send the necessary instructions to our Minister in Jidda.
I should like if I may to refer to another matter concerning Saudi Arabia as I am writing to you on the subject. I hear that there is a rumor in the Middle East that His Majesty’s Government, through their representatives at Jidda, themselves suggested to Ibn Saud that he might make this stipulation about the financial adviser and the officers being Sunni Moslems, with the object of restricting the choice to British subjects, and to cut out the Americans. I should like to say that the State Department may be categorically assured that this rumor, into which we have enquired, is absolutely unfounded. The proposal originated spontaneously from Ibn Saud, without any prompting from Mr. Jordan, or any other British source, and we have reason to believe that Ibn Saud feels strongly on the subject.
I feel that in this question of advisers we have to consider not only American and British interests but also Ibn Saud’s own position. He has to be extremely careful not to expose himself to criticism to the effect that he, as guardian of the holy places of Islam and as leader of one of the strictest Moslem sects, has come under foreign influence and has accepted Christians to administer his affairs. I am [Page 706] sure the State Department will agree that we shall have to be careful to handle these questions of advisers in a way which will not lower Ibn Saud’s prestige amongst his own people.”