Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎163v] (327/540)

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to charges on commerce and navigation, as well as in respect of transit, &c. An
ensuing article embodied a number of reservations of one sort or another. No
mention was made of the slave trade or the manumission of slaves.
99. Towards the end of the year the Standard Oil Company of California
installed a permanent representative at Jedda, who is understood to aspire to
the position of United States consul. The preference of the Saudi Government **
for Big Business as compared with other forms of American activity was
illustrated at the end of December, when a party of three anthropologists, two
male and one female, came to Jedda only to find that there was no open door for
skull measurers in Saudi Arabia.
(12) Other Countries.
100. Saudi Arabia cannot be said to have had serious relations with any
other countries in 1933. Poland still whistled faintly for the money due in
respect of the arms, &c., supplied to Ibn Saud in 1930. The Vatican included all
Arabia in the jurisdiction of a new Apostolic delegate for Palestine, Egypt, &c.,
but, in the circumstances described in paragraph 180, it is likely to be long before
there is any intercourse between the Imam of the Wahhabis and the Pope.
(C) Position in regard to the General International System and the
League of Nations.
101. The aloofness of the Saudi Government from any important partici
pation in the family life of the nations was almost greater in 1933 than in 1932.
They, however, sent their Director-General of Public Health to both meetings
of International Health Office in Paris. They were represented by their Minister
in London at the World Economic Conference held there in June and July.
They were a little worried lest, owing to the anomalous state of their relations
with Egypt, they might not receive an invitation in proper form to the meeting
of the International Postal Congress intended to be held in Cairo in February
1934, but the invitation was in due course received during the summer and was
duly accepted.
102. The question of the possible entry of Saudi Arabia into the League
of Nations (see paragraphs 107-8 of the report for 1931 and paragraph 93 of
that for 1932) was not pursued in Jedda. On the 3rd March, however, the
Saudi Minister in London referred to the subject in conversation with
Sir L. Oliphant and asked for the views and advice of His Majesty’s Government.
The discussion bore on three particular points. The Minister agreed that, if
Saudi Arabia were at any time to seek admission to the League, the request
would have to come as from a new country. He made light of the possible
difficulty presented by the League’s requirement that an applicant State must
have established and well-defined frontiers. When it was pointed out that the
continuance of slavery might be severely criticised at Geneva, he invoked the
precedent of Abyssinia and added the remarkable statement that Ibn Saud felt
that, if his country were a member of the League, the League might help him
in the matter of anti-slavery measures. He reverted to the subject on the
11th May, stating that his Government were not asking for a definite promise
of support from His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, but would
be glad to know whether an application by Saudi Arabia would be favourably
viewed by them. On being reminded of the difficulties previously adverted to,
he agreed not to press for an immediate answer.
103. These conversations led to a re-examination of the subject as viewed
by His Majesty’s Government. The results were set forth in an important
Foreign Office despatch to Jedda dated the 17th May. A fresh analysis of the
pros and cons led to a conclusion rather less favourable than that in the passage
from Mr. Henderson’s earlier despatch, which was reproduced in paragraph 107
of the report for 1931. Special attention was given to the possible effect of the
uncertainty as regards boundaries. It was not thought (but the despatch was
written before the Saudi-Yemen quarrel had entered its acute stage, and before
the question of the boundary of Qatar had assumed its present importance) that
this uncertainty would be a serious obstacle. It was not thought desirable to