Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia 1935, promulgated for the Information and Guidance of all concerned. By Command of the Air Council, C.D. 113 Confidential (August 1936) / A.P. 3140 Restricted (September 1939).. Cet article n’est pas disponible.Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia 1935, promulgated for the Information and Guidance of all concerned. By Command of the Air Council, C.D. 113 Confidential (August 1936) / A.P. 3140 Restricted (September 1939).

First edition, never reprinted in any form. This rare official report is unquestionably the most important contemporary source on Ibn Sa'ud's newly consolidated kingdom, including its relations with neighbouring states. Produced by the body responsible for Britain's military operations in the region, it offers a comprehensive account, well-provided with maps and charts. The report was compiled under the aegis of the Air Ministry, the body responsible for Britain's military involvement in the region, largely from material supplied by its embedded intelligence agents, including perhaps its most talented Special Service Officer, Gerald de Gaury, a trusted ally and personal friend of Ibn Sa'ud. In 1919, the British War Cabinet created a "ten year rule", a resolution that no major international conflict would occur for at least ten years. "What Britain had needed during the inter-war years from the restive tribes and rickety governments in the Middle East and the North-West Frontier was tranquillity and cooperation sufficient to significantly reduce the cost of garrisoning these areas. She also needed a level of stability that allowed the creation and maintenance of safe, reliable, and open commercial air routes to South Africa, the Far East, and India" (Newton, p. 40). The use of air control in imperial policing emerged as colonial policy following the Cairo Conference of 1921. Success in the pacification of Mesopotamia and the establishment of the kingdom of Iraq confirmed its adoption. Essentially, expensive garrisons were withdrawn and replaced with air strips, backed up with squadrons of light armoured cars. The British put much faith in the surveillance aspect of the use of aircraft in preventing insurrection. The format is very similar to geographical handbooks issued by the Naval Intelligence Division. A substantial volume, the style is spare but densely packed with data vital for successful interaction with the newly recognized state, in easily assimilable form. A brief overview of the contents suggests the range of information contained here. The opening chapter offers a concise history of the region from the Turkish occupation through to the Treaty of Taif, explaining Ibn Sa'ud's ascendency in terms of "a religious revival", with peace and diminution of "Ikhwan fervour" within stable borders by 1935. The second chapter moves on to an examination of the systems of central and local government, along with an explanation of Wahhabi law, the Mejlis al-Tujjar or "merchant assembly", and fiscal policy. Population, the third section, encompasses estimated analyses of nomadic and settled numbers by region, and for non-Arab population groups in the Hejaz, together with more descriptive sections covering tribal characteristics and relations, attitudes of the races to each other and to Europeans, regional religious differences, and the impact of migration. The main text had a print run of just 750 copies, the supplementary route added here a run of 1,000. We have traced copies in the British Library's India Office Records and at St Anthony's College, Oxford, as well as copies in storage at the RAF Museum. Oxford separately holds a map and three plans, and the British Library also holds three plans. We have traced one copy in commerce. None of those traced seemingly have the the additional material found here. Molly Izzard, de Gaury obituary, Asian Affairs, 15:2, 1984; Richard Dana Newton, Control without Occupation: The missed lesson of effective air operations in irregular conflict from the RAF's air control scheme, KCL Defence Studies Department PhD thesis, 2016; M. A. Nolan, GSGS Miscellaneous Maps - An Introduction - online. Octavo (260 x 160 mm) in 16s, pp. i, 173. With 19 folding maps and plans bound-in, as called for (the last being part of the supplementary route added in 1939), 3 unlisted plates to illustrate types of Sa'udi fighting men, and a large coloured folding area map in end-pocket. Page numbers of the index have b.…