The Locust Years, 1932–38

Abstract

In 1933 the spy Kim Philby made his first contribution of substance to the world’s knowledge of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For it was in that year that Abdullah Philby published his account of his crossing of the Empty Quarter in 1932. The 21-year old Kim was engaged by his father to do the proof-reading, a task which he performed with care but not without error.¹

Several babies arrived this year to add to the number of 29 boys and 30 girls.

Princess Alice, March 1938 on visit to Saudi Arabia, quoted in Lacey, The Kingdom, p. 254

Incomparably therefore the least malleable problem confronting King Abdul-Aziz lies in economics … the land is not blest of Heaven in the material sense.

K. Williams, Ibn Saud, p. 290

The King, still apparently more dictator than sovereign, refreshed himself during the first part of August by slaughtering gazelle at the purifying risk of being thrown from his Mercedes-Benz.

British confidential report on Ibn Saud in the Hejaz, 1932, in The Jedda Diaries, Vol. 3, p. 142