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File 3666/1925 'ARABIA: PRINTED CORRESPONDENCE 1924-28' [‎346v] (703/792)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (388 folios). It was created in 27 Dec 1924-28 Oct 1929. It was written in English and French. 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. .

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private remonstrances at this method of dealing with legitimate grievances Ali
assures me that the beating was inflicted without his knowledge and that he has
issued strict orders against the beating of soldiers in such cases in future. What
effect this treatment by itself would have had cannot be judged, for at that moment
a contribution of £20,000 arrived from Hussein and the troops were made tolerably
happy by the issue of a month's pay.
The detention as soldiers of foreigners who have no written contract and who
wish to leave because their pay is several months in arrears has made it necessary
to apply to His Majesty’s Government again for instructions. The letter had
hardly been posted when a batch of over 200 more recruits arrived from Akaba
—most of them Palestinians.
There is reason to believe that the rumour reported some time ago, that the
Hejaz Government were trying to recruit men from territories near Aden, was well
founded. The recruiting agent seems to have been one Ahmad Saqqaf, who went
to Aden with several thousand pounds for the purpose. The Foreign Secretary
complained to one of my colleagues that they could have secured thousands of
Hadhrami recruits if His Majesty’s Government had not interfered.
5. No staple foodstuffs have been imported into Jeddah for some months,
merchants having been discouraged by the requisitioning of considerable quantities,
without any security for payment, for the army. It is calculated that the existing
stocks of flour will last only about a month. There will still remain large stocks of
rice, but the local people are not used to a diet of rice and will not take to it gladly.
6. The Foreign Secretary professes to hope that troops may now be obtained
from the Yemen. He boasts that the Imam has written Ali a most friendly letter
offering an alliance. Hehas shown me a letter which is certainly sealed with the
Imam’s seal, but the only part I was allowed to read was a non-committal state
ment about excluding foreign influence and " European education,” and applying
the Shara’ Law. The imam’s motive is probably to allay any suspicions Ali miy
have while the Idrisi is being dealt with.
7. Permission to enter India having been received from the Government of
India, the three men whom the Hejaz Government had selected as a deputation
left for Aden on April 18th on their way to Bombay. They are :—
Saiyid Tahir Dabbagh, formerly clerk in the Finance Department. He
became Minister of Finance on Hussein's fall, but resigned on his
departure for India.
Ahmad Ghazzawi, chief clerk to the Prime Minister.
Al Taib Al Sasi, who in Hussein’s time was assistant editor of the " Qibla '.
It is understood that they are not going as an official delegation ; their
object is rather secret or at any rate unobtrusive propaganda. They have
with them £8,000—ostensibly for the purchase of food-stuffs for the Hejaz
army.
8. The seizure of a Kamaran dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. at Hali by Hejaz armed craft raised the
question of the status of Kamaran. The Hejaz Government have placed the
dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. and the cargo at the disposal of this Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , and a member of the crew,
who all decamped at the time of seizure, is on the way to Jeddah to take delivery
of them. Meanwhile His Majesty’s Government have agreed that for the pur
poses of the blockade Kamaran dhows should be regarded as though they were
British. *
9. The Soviet and Persian representatives returned after spending five or
six days in Mecca. With Mr. Khakimoff the reaction after this prolonged period
of piety was very severe : he drank steadily for twenty four hours and was more
or less unconscious for forty-eight. He does not seem to have been very success
ful with Bin Saud. The Netherlands Vice Consul, Shaikh Pravira, was allowed
to move about freely in Mecca, but Mr. Khakimoff and Ahmad Lari, the Acting
Persian Consul, were given Wahabi attendants without whom they were not
supposed to go anywhere : they evaded the attendants on one occasion and paid
a secret visit to the Senoussi, to the great indignation of Bin Saud’s represen
tatives in Mecca.

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Content

This volume mainly relates to British policy in Arabia, and specifically concerns British relations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd, also referred to in the correspondence as Bin Saud]. The papers cover the Hejaz-Nejd War of 1924-25 and political affairs in Ibn Saud's Kingdom of Hejaz and Sultanate of Nejd [Najd] (or the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, as it became in 1927).

The volume mainly consists of compiled sections of printed correspondence, with each section closing with a report from the British Agent and Consul at Jeddah. The most prominently featured correspondents are as follows: the British Agent and Consul, Jeddah; the Secretary of State for India; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. , Aden; the High Commissioner, Egypt; the High Commissioner, Iraq; the High Commissioner, Palestine; officials of the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, 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. ; the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department. Also featured as correspondents are Ibn Saud, King Ali [‘Alī bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī], and British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

Matters covered in the correspondence include the following:

  • Diplomatic relations between Ibn Saud and Britain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Persia [Iran]
  • Information on developments in the Hejaz-Nejd War of 1924-25, mainly in the form of telegrams and letters from the British Agent and Consul at Jeddah, and British policy regarding the conflict
  • British policy in relation to the fate of the ex-King Hussein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī]
  • Reports of Wahabi forces having damaged or destroyed holy sites in Mecca and Medina
  • The efforts of King Ali [‘Alī bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī] to raise money in Jeddah
  • Details of the Hadda Agreement and the Bahra Agreement, concluded between Sir Gilbert Clayton and Ibn Saud in late 1925
  • Details of King Ali's surrender and abdication on 19 December 1925, and arrangements for his passage out of Jeddah
  • Britain's recognition of Ibn Saud as King of the Hejaz in February 1926
  • British concerns regarding the spread of anti-British opinion in the Hejaz
  • Public outrage in the wider Muslim world regarding the desecration of holy sites by the Wahabis, and the British Government's refusal to become involved, owing to its stated policy of non-intervention in Muslim religious affairs
  • British efforts to ensure the Government of Hejaz's participation in the International Sanitary Convention of 1926
  • Arrangements for a private visit to London by Ibn Saud's son Faisal [Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd] in September 1926
  • British concerns regarding Ibn Saud's diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR]
  • A change to Ibn Saud's title in 1927, from 'King of Hejaz and Sultan of Nejd' to 'King of Hejaz and Nejd'
  • The conclusion of the Treaty of Jeddah in June 1927
  • Relations between Ibn Saud and the Imam of Yemen [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn], and the former's suspicions that the Italian Government has been supplying the Imam with arms
  • Profiles of prominent figures in the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd
  • The number of pilgrims arriving each year for Hajj
  • Tense relations between Ibn Saud and the Iraqi Government, particularly concerning the Uqair Protocol.

Also included with the correspondence are the following: minutes of an interdepartmental conference held at the Colonial Office on 20 May 1926, to discuss matters arising out of Clayton's Mission to Ibn Saud (ff 178-179); a Colonial Office memorandum entitled 'British Interests in Arabia', dated 8 December 1926 (ff 111-113).

The volume includes a small amount of correspondence written in French.

The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (f 1).

Extent and format
1 volume (388 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 388; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, 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. A previous foliation sequence between ff 118-388, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.

Pagination: each of the various sections of printed correspondence has its own printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 3666/1925 'ARABIA: PRINTED CORRESPONDENCE 1924-28' [‎346v] (703/792), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/1155, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100145454965.0x000068> [accessed 6 October 2024]

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