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Coll 6/21(1) 'Hejaz-Nejd: Relations with H.M.G.: Hejaz Legation in London and British Minister in Jeddah.' [147v] (305/914)
The record is made up of 1 volume (453 folios). It was created in 7 Sep 1927-10 Jan 1935. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
4. The King received me at 9 a.m. I was accompanied as before by
Mr. Furlonge and Ismail Effendi, who interpreted. Sheikh Yussuf Yasin was
in attendance.
5. After compliments, I said that my Government had wished me to take
the first opportunity of expressing to the King in person the great pleasure with
which they had heard of the Saudi-Yemen settlement and their sense of th^y
wisdom which His Majesty had shown in dealing with that matter. The King
observed that he desired peace with all his neighbours, firstly, because they were
Arabs, and secondly, because there was nothing to divide them. Relying, as he
always did, on the friendship of His Majesty’s Government, he had sought their
advice. It accorded with his own views, and he had acted on it. I said that
His Majesty’s Government believed the settlement to be in the best interest of
Arabia and gave the credit for it to the King, who had shown firmness, and had
known how to show moderation as well in the last phase.
6. The King’s repeated affirmation of his friendship for His Majesty’s
Government gave me the opportunity of saying that it was a primary point in
my instructions that I was to reaffirm their friendly dispositions, which were
unchanged and unchangeable, towards him and his country. I referred to the
importance of removing all possible obstacles to complete friendship by settling
certain questions, and to the wish of His Majesty’s Government to be informed
as to the desiderata of the King.
7. The King started with the subject of Iraq. His statements were long
and involved, but his drift was clear. He thought that all the Arab States
needed some outside Power to rely on, and, though there were other friends,
that Power should be Great Britain, who was in close relations with all of the
States concerned. He was worried lest Iraq, the strongest of the Arab States,
should be attacked by Turkey and/or Persia, and lest he should be menaced
through Iraq as a result. He observed that he was currently supposed to be
hostile to the ruling family of Iraq, but the truth was that he had nothing
against them. He desired their interest as well as his own. If the arrangements
between His Majesty’s Government and Iraq were such as to secure Iraq against
the attacks he feared, he would be easy in his mind. When Fuad Bey had spoken
of an Arab alliance, he had had in mind some arrangement between Iraq and
Saudi Arabia to ensure their mutual safety. The King intimated that he would
like to see some such arrangement arrived at under the auspices of His Majesty’s
Government, the friend of both.
8. I explained that my conversations with Fuad Bey, which had not been
completed owing to his illness, had not carried us quite as far as the King
suggested, e.g., he had not used the word £ ‘alliance” in connexion with Iraq.
I was all the more anxious to ascertain the King’s exact meaning, in order that
I might convey his ideas in a definite form to my Government. I gathered from
his statement that he had in mind three possible things in connexion with the
dangers he feared . (ci) He had said that he would be easy in his mind, if assured
that the ariangements between His Majesty’s Government and Iraq sufficed to
safeguard the latter; (b) he had spoken of the possibility of some sort of alliance
or defensive treaty between him and Iraq; (c) he had spoken as though he
contemplated some sort of an alliance to which His Majesty’s Government could
be a party.
r n ^he King did not demur to my analysis. After some further exchanges,
1 observed that point (c) was the only one on which I could speak. His Majesty’s
Government were animated in regard to the Arab States by a desire to see them
prosper and by the friendly sentiments of which we had spoken, but it was
contrary to their general policy to enter into alliances except in very special cases
3as elr the re res y nW oY W “ “i? n ° f Allknce,” b/t that alliance
was the lesultant of a process by which Iraq had evolved from her Turkish
proyinda! status, through British occupation and subsequent dependence on Hm
e Brif “
10. The King said that he was not insistino-
Majesty’s Government. Their firm Sien^h^^S g^aslny aUiaT^
redefined his ideas m terms which amounted to this : that he would like to come
to an arrangement with Iraq, under the auspices of His Majesty’s Government
About this item
- Content
This volume concerns relations between the British Government and the Government of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia).
The volume largely consists of copies of Foreign Office and Colonial Office correspondence. The correspondence near the beginning of the volume discusses Ibn Saud's [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd's] wish to enter into full diplomatic relations with the British Government. The Hejazi Government's proposal in 1929 to establish a legation in London is accompanied by a request for the British Government to raise the status of its Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and Consulate in Jedda to the same status.
The subsequent correspondence in the volume discusses the following:
- The British Government's consideration (and acceptance) of Ibn Saud's proposal, and the appointment of Sir Andrew Ryan as His Majesty's Minister at the British Legation in Jedda in May 1930.
- Hafiz Wahba's appointment as Hejazi Minister in London in 1930.
- Complaints made by the Hejazi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regarding Sir Andrew Ryan's attitude and conduct since his arrival in Jedda.
- Details of an Hejazi-Nejdi diplomatic mission to Europe (including visits to Italy, France, Britain, and the Netherlands), undertaken in May 1932 and headed by Amir Feisal [Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd], Hejazi Minister for Foreign Affairs (this part of the volume includes detailed accounts of the mission's meetings with Foreign Office officials during its visit to London).
- Sir Andrew Ryan's account of his meeting with Ibn Saud at Taif in July 1934, and their discussion of the 'blue line' (the frontier which marked the Ottoman Government's renunciation of its claims to Bahrain and Qatar, in the Anglo-Ottoman convention of 1913) and the Kuwait blockade.
- Details of several meetings held at the Foreign Office between Fuad Bey Hamza (Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs for Saudi Arabia), Sir Andrew Ryan and George William Rendel (Head of the Foreign Office's Eastern Department), during September 1934, regarding the 'blue line', the Kuwait blockade, and the future of the Treaty of Jedda (the treaty signed between Britain and Ibn Saud in 1927).
- Requests from the Italian Government for information regarding Fuad Bey Hamza's visit to London.
The volume features the following principal correspondents: His Majesty's Agent and Consul at Jedda, a position that was raised to His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires to Jedda in late 1929 (Hugh Stonehewer Bird, William Linskill Bond, Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, and Albert Spencer Calvert successively); His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); His Majesty's Ambassador in Rome (Ronald William Graham); Ibn Saud; Amir Faisal; officials of the Hejazi/Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs; officials of the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, and the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
In addition to correspondence, the volume contains a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East. The meeting, which took place in London on 8 November 1934, was primarily concerned with the settlement of the 'blue line' issue, the Saudi- Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan frontier, and the Kuwait blockade.
The volume includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (453 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 449; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The front and back covers, along with the two leading and two ending flyleaves, have not been foliated.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Coll 6/21(1) 'Hejaz-Nejd: Relations with H.M.G.: Hejaz Legation in London and British Minister in Jeddah.' [147v] (305/914), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2087, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100066378256.0x00006a> [accessed 3 April 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2087
- Title
- Coll 6/21(1) 'Hejaz-Nejd: Relations with H.M.G.: Hejaz Legation in London and British Minister in Jeddah.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:iv-v, 3r:78v, 80r:96v, 100r:151v, 153r:218v, 220r:227v, 229r:238v, 240r:240v, 242r:242v, 244r:247v, 249r:255v, 258r:286v, 288r:293v, 298r:316v, 320r:362v, 364r:366v, 370r:371v, 373r:406v, 409r:422v, 424r:426v, 428r:448v, v-r:vi-v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence