STORY OF IBN SAUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 187, 9 August 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

STORY OF IBN SAUD.

A GREAT EPIC OF ARABIA,

TRU3 SOU OF ISHMAEL

BRITISH DIPLOMACY OPENS NEW ERA.

(By GEOFFREY RAWSON, 0.8. E. F.R.G.S.)

A few weeks ago a remarkable scene wa3 enacted on the quarter deck of a small British sloop, H.M.S. Lupin, anchored off Basra; On the deck of that slip two great Arabian sultans, who for a space oi 15 years had regarded each other with the bitterest animosity, Wk hand?, signed a treaty, and ended 1 feud which at one time threatened to it Arabia, in twain and winch had tised the British Government intense anxiety over a long period. The two protagonists were His Highness Abdul Aziz Ibn Sand, King of the HeTaz, Sultan of Ncjd,Lord of Arabia, 3 His Majesty Faisal Al Husam, £jn<r of the Iraq. These remarkable men had for many rears contested the supremacy of a I eater Arabia. Ibn Sand, while still a youth Of 20, had set out upon the Haeiise task of making himself the Iter of the peninsula; slowly but -m-elr he built up an immense army of follower* equipped with modern rifles. Ho defeated first one and then another f the rival sheiks who stood in nis oath; he ejected the Turkish troops Lin the Hasa province in the east; at he. height of the Great War he signed , tr caty with Britain under wmch he Reived £00,000 a year in gold, and when, after the conclusion of the war, Iris most potent rival, King Husam of the Bejaz, styled himself "King of the Arab countries," a coolness sprang up between them which only the eflorts of Britain prevented from developing into open hostility. There was trouble about a disputed oasis and though Britain had threatened that'if Ibn Saud did not keep quiet his subsidy would be withdrawn, the proud spirit of the man could not brook his rival's claims. AVith true Bedouin skill and m the utmost secrecy, Ibn Sand's forces advanced under cover of night against the Heiaz army, which the King Husain had sent under the command of his second sou, Abdulla, 'Faisal's brother. _ The sleeping army was surprised, annihilated in true Arab fashion, and Ibn Saud rested on his laurels. Seeking Worlds to Conquer. But not for long. Soon afterwards he was off again to take action against a rival sheik, Ibn Rashid, of Jebel Shammar. Fortune favoured him at this juncture, for his rival was assassinated; his heir was unequal to the task of meeting the terrible Saud in combat, and surrendered to him. By 1923 Ibn Saud was in complete control of the whole of the Arabian peninsula, but this geographical entity, though it comprised an enormous area, and though it was the real Arabia and was no-w.subject to his rule, did not satisfy the ambitious and martial Saud. He had been so extraordinarily successful, he was so much feared, he had now become so influential, and his power was so evidently on the increase, that he cast his eyes over a wider territory than the mere Arabian itself. To the north-east of him lay Iraq, an irabian territory which -had been handed oyer by Britain to one of the sons of his old • enemy, King Husain. King Faisal now reigned there, Faisal of the hated Sherifian family. What right had Faisal, the puppet King, to be seated on the throne of Iraq? He was there, not by right of arms, not by right of conquest, not by any right, as it appeared to Saud. No! He eat on the Bagdad throne because he had wen put there by Britain, and Britain had no right to place him there. To make matter?, woree, King Husain's other son, Abdulla—ha whom Saud had so shamelessly put to rout some years before had been made king of TransJordania, which lay to the north-west of Sand's dominions and which thus threatened him with raids at any time. with Iraq to the north-east and TransJordania to the north-west of him, he could never remain in peace. In any event, these territories were part of Arabia proper; if these two puppet angs wished to hold their lands, they mustbe prepared to fight for them— ■Britain or no Britain. She, in any case, was a false and fickle friend who had sided with his rivals and had withdrawn his subsidy. Britain Calls a Halt. He raided Iraq, he raided Transrtu 1 ! 1. Re launched an army against Me Hejaz. He captured the Holy City Of Mecca itself and soon he had conquered the whole of the Hejaz. Here was a man indeed, a terrible fighter, as swift .^iM. 0 ?*,* 8 merci less as an eagle. Faisal «M Abdullah trembled for their security; IvZ T? ed ieavil y on the British Gov«w ■ su PP° r t against this redoubt--2?* 1 ?5 Mr who made thcir lives a burj,T Z™? m an <i jeopardised their secur"7- Without Britain's aid it is possible, "ay probable that ere this, the great m baud would have overrun the Iraq ln£ ™- Joi 'dania and made himself 'om and master of the very "Arab Countries" to which old Husain had aspn'ed. Ran? sk Jl led 2 eneral he is, Ibn -anal could not prevail against the force nt,7 arms - To Preserve the Arabian IT t? • t0 sl, PPort their allies in the vmoi i and Abd " lla a> Britain intertronn -d ■ tish aero British uTio s ' nns caiue int ° acti ° n htT S i ud ' s raider 3 aild they were S;f aS? witb - terriWe losscs - He S ed ,^ at Lis fream of an "Arab j3! .to illcl »de the Iraq and transgjaaia wa s but a dream-so long as . dpß\ Was against hlm - And she was spW 7 o °PP OSed to his grandiose wTft- ? he was bellhld Faisal and she *as behind Abdulla. on Saud is not only a great warrior ftln. a 'I a n,ler of discretion. He he 7 £ at with B "tain against him won w CWltGn t with what he had „ * ,^ e consented to negotiate, he - tea to meet Faisal and they met on ne quarterdeck of His Majesty's sloop U I n m February last. Uere, brought together by the strong in!, Ann 0f B "tain, the two rivals ea 3 « n +? treaty in which thev recognise j" a Cher's independence, agree to outtufoi * raids ' a ? I to define the disLl * ron tiers and to submit future disWes to arbitration. A . J w »s as much a victory for British ■I'lomaey as for either side. Thus closes \ ° n S ch apter in the history of Arabia. ~„ ew one is now opened, a new era of wr i P ros P c "ty and good-will in warracked Arabia. But Ibn Saud cannot wvest himself of his dreams and his JJbitwns; he is a lighting man, a war: daxr t the dcsevt wll ° valises that the klw Camel is Before leavBrJtM? S °° d shi P Lu ldn he ordered four uisn aeroplanes.