ABSTRACT
WHEN World War II ended Saudi Arabia, despite quite appreciable financial and material assistance from Britain and the United States, was in the parlous economic condition from which it has indeed never emerged. The country which King Ibn Saud rules as a despot in fact faced a crisis, largely, in his view, because the war had halved the number of Moslems who each year made the pilgrimage to Mecca, as the Koran orders them to do at least once in a lifetime. The revenue Saudi Arabia collected from pilgrims before the war amounted in a good season to some four millions sterling. The King saw no chance of a speedy revival of this profitable traffic and he was being pressed for money by a large and greedy family. He was also behindhand in the 'subsidies' he had to pay to the chiefs of various large and important tribes who had to be annually bribed to keep the peace and to refrain from disturbing the internal security of the country. In addition, he needed to import large quantities of cereals to keep his nomadic people alive.
