File 87/1926 Pt 1 'Arabia: Bin Saud; Title; Recognition as King of the Hedjaz' [‎131r] (255/306)

17/S
Minute Paper.
Department
P. 4081/24
P. 4421/24
There is of course no knowing how Moslems
looking for a grievance might misinterpret the formal
recognition of Ibn Saud by His Majesty*s Government
as de .jure King of the Hejaz.
But apart from this there seem to be reasons
for deferring de jure recognition.
In the first place the title “King of the
Hedjaz" seems likely, despite the shortness of the
period that it has been in existence, to connote for
Moslems “Guardian of the Holy Places.” It is true that
the title (Malik al Hejaz) was selected after very
close discussion in 1916 as the one least likely to
have a religious or a too wide territorial
interpretation put on it. But Hussein was, as Grand
Sharif of Mecca, the Guardian of the Holy Places, and
remained so when he merged the title of Grand Sharif
in the greater title of King of the Hejaz. Ali, though
never recognised as King of the Hejaz by His
Majesty’s Government, was in possession of Mecca and
| Medina when on 4th October 1924 he was elected, by the
; notables of Mecca and Jeddah at Jeddah, as King in
.
place of his father Hussein. Though Ali deliberately
repudiated any title to the Caliphate which Hussein
had assumed, it is a tenable theory that the title
of King of the Hejaz which he did assume carried with
it the guardianship of the Holy Places of which he
still retained a precarious hold.
If then the title "King of-the Hejaz” implies
or can be held to imply guardianship of the Holy
Places, it would be in accordance with His Majesty's
i Government's
345.V
5000
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