"ملف 61/11 IV (D 77) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [ظ‎‎٢‎٠] (٣٦٦/٤٨)

In this connexion I said that al] I knew of the Foreign Office in Mecca was that,
according to the Hejaz Constitution, it should be organised in four sections. I had
never set eyes on the heads of those sections and was uncertain as to their existence.
In any normal country I should have the advantage of their acquaintance and
members of my staff would be able to see such of them as dealt with our business. I
contrasted my position with that awaiting Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, who on the eve of his
departure had spoken to me cheerfully of escaping from the heat of London to the
seaside and perhaps later running up to Scotland. Such happy anticipations
inspired envy in the breast of an opposite number compelled to stew in Jedda all the
time; but I went further. Suppose, I said, that King George assumed the sole
direction of our foreign affairs; that the Foreign Office were moved to Oxford; that
it were considered essential, in deference to the ancient Christian traditions of that
place, to exclude from it Moslems, Brahmins and the disciples of Confucius; and
that Hafiz Wahba were confined to London and the suburbs; would the Hejaz
Government then think that they were justified in the expense of maintaining a
Legation in Great Britain ?
5. In the course of my statement I referred again to the possibility of my being ^
instructed to ask for an audience of the King. I said that if this happened my only
proper and polite course would be to ask to be received at Taif, as Ibn Saud was in
residence there and I had no official knowledge that it was closed to foreign repre
sentatives. In conclusion, I told Fuad Bey that my statement was of a purely
personal nature, intended primarily for his own consumption. The matter might
not be ripe for submission to the King, but I begged him to remember what I had
said if one of these days I did ask for an audience at Taif or if, at some future date,
His Majesty's Government conceived doubts as to the utility of maintaining a
Minister here.
6. Fuad Bey is supporting a great burden, and in most ways impresses me more
favourably than I expected. He listened to me carefully and welcomed, I think, a
frank connected statement. At the end, he said that my criticism was justified. He
was himself conscious of the defects of his machinery. He had not wished to trouble
the King prematurely at a time of ^reat preoccupation, but he had now prepared a
scheme for the consideration of His Majesty. He added spontaneously that the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs ought to be in Jedda.
I have, &c.
ANDREW RYAN.