Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎49r] (98/540)

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II. —Foreign Relations.
(A).— With States in Arabia.
Iraq.
4. The Amir Saud went to Bagdad at the end of March for a week’s visit.
From remarks made to him by the Amir on several occasions His Majesty’s
Ambassador at Bagdad gathered that the Amir was pleased by the arrangements
made for him and gratified by the warmth of the popular welcome given to him
\ynen he appeared in public. An exchange of cordial telegrams concluded the
visit. i he Amir was accompanied by Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, who received
representations from the Iraq Government as to the dissatisfaction which they
had long felt with the conduct of the Saudi Charge d’Affaires in Bagdad, Shaikh
Ibrahim al Mu’ammar. They doubtless repeated to him complaints which they
had made on several occasions to His Majesty’s Ambassador, that Shaikh Ibrahim
made a practice of keeping in close touch with the political opponents of the
Government, openly belittled King Ghazi and made unfavourable comparisons
between him and King Abdul Aziz, and was guilty of other indiscretions. Shortly
afterwards Shaikh Ibrahim was removed and replaced by Shaikh Muhammad
Id al Rawwaf, formerly Saudi Consul in Damascus and for the preceding two
years Deputy Qaimmaqam of Jedda. It seems unlikely that any intrigues of
which shaikh Ibrahim may have been guilty were committed under instructions
from Ibn Saud, who removed him almost at once when complaints were made to
Sheikh Hafiz Wahba.
5. While the relations between the two countries have remained outwardly
correct and even cordial, Ibn Saud retains a feeling of suspicion against Iraq.
His misgivings at the military cony of 1936 were referred to in the report for
that year (paragraph 13). He reiterated them at one of the conversations during
Mr. Rendel’s visit. Everyone, he said, was suspicious of the new Government
and regarded it as not Arab. There was much to be said against Yasin al
Hashimi, but at least he had followed an Arab policy. The Hikmet Sulaiman
Government was open to two objections : it was communistic, and it was under
Turkish influence; and the Turks, who had already began to try to get
Alexandretta, would eventually try to acquire Mosul. Mr. Rendel suggested
that judgment should be suspended until it could be seen whether the policy
was really communistic and not merely one of long-needed social reforms, and
gave reasons for thinking that Hikmet Sulaiman was shaking himself free from
military influence to some extent and that the Turks were not likely to pursue
a policy of adventure. Speaking to Sir R. Bullard at Riyadh in July, Ibn Saud
said that however much he must sympathise with Arab aspirations he would
rather have had the British as his neighbours than the Iraqis. And in December
he spoke with uneasiness of the instability and lack of continuity in Iraq, and
with annoyance at reports that certain people in Iraq, e.g., Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , were
trying to bring off a “ scoop ” with a Palestine policy designed not for the sake
of the Palestinians nor of His Majesty’s Government, but in their own interests.
However, he admitted that relations had always been correct.
6. The negotiations about the adhesion of the Yemen to the Iraqi-Saudi
Treaty are dealt with in the section on the Yemen.
7. In April His Majesty’s Ambassador at Bagdad informed the Foreign
Office that, according to a statement made to him by the Iraqi Minister for
Foreign Affairs, the Turkish Minister had stated that his Government had no
objection to the adhesion of Saudi Arabia to the Four-Power Non-Aggression
Pact then about to be signed between Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, and
that the opportunity of the visit of the Amir Saud would be taken to discuss
the matter. His Majesty’s Ambassador assumed the attitude of His Majesty’s
Government to be that the proposal was not one in which they were concerned,
and was informed that this assumption was correct. Whether the Turkish
Government ever broached the subject, either to the Amir Saud or to any other
person representing the Saudi Arabian Government, is not known.
Palestine.
8. In connexion with the alleged theft of a camel from a Saudi subject
at Gaza, the Saudi Government asked for the opinion of His Majesty’s Minister
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