مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٧] (٥٤٠/٣٧٥)

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(C) Position in regard to the General International System and the
League of Nations.
90. During the greater part of 1932 the Saudi Government were too greatly
preoccupied with internal affairs to devote much attention to general international
affairs, even were they more disposed than before to depart from their attitud^^
of aloofness in regard to most matters of general international concern.
91. In the domain of health Saudi Arabia took one important step forward
by acceding in January 1932 to the Rome Convention of 1907. This decision
was in accordance with the suggestion made informally by His Majesty’s Govern
ment in the l nited Kingdom in 1931. Nothing more was heard of the Saudi
idea of adhering to the International Sanitary Convention of 1926, with
reservations. In due course the Government despatched their Director-General
of Public Health to attend the October meeting of the Office International at
Paris. In November and December the Mecca Umm-al-Qura published a certain
account about the 1907 and 1926 conventions, emphasising inter alia the fact that
a report on sanitary conditions in the Hejaz made some years ago by a League
of Nations committee related to conditions under the Hashimite regime.
Reference is made in paragraph 67 to the attitude which the Amil Feisal’s
mission appears to have taken up in Paris in regard to the Alexandria
Quarantine Board.
92. The Saudi Government did not revert during the year to the question
of acceding to the Arms Traffic Convention, in which they had previously shown
so much interest.
93. The Saudi Government made no move of any kind regarding possible
membership of the League of Nations. They, however, appointed their Minister
in London to represent them at the Disarmament Conference and Sheikh Hafiz
Wahba spent quite a little of his time at Geneva. The statement furnished by
his Government regarding their military forces, &c., is dealt with in Section V.
On the 27th July the Acting Saudi Minister for Foreign Affairs surprised
Sir Andrew Ryan by tackling him on the subject of President Hoover’s then
recent disarmament proposals. His idea seemed to be that the Saudi Government
would be very ready to follow Mr. Hoover’s lead if they could be assured of
security on their northern frontiers. Sir Andrew Ryan smelt a rat and suggested
that the Saudi Government would do better to obtain the views of His Majesty’s
Government in the United Kingdom through their Minister in London, though
he offered to submit to the Secretary of State any points which Sheikh Yussuf
might like to set forth in an unofficial letter. He reported the conversation to
the Foreign Office, after which nothing further was heard of the matter in Jedda.
94. The Umm-al-Qura announced in November that the Saudi Government
had been invited to take part in the “ International Economic Conference which
is intended to be held in London.” The reference was presumably to the proposed
World Economic Conference, but the apparently premature statement in the
Umm-al-Qura is not understood by the Legation in Jedda,
95. On the 8th April the United States Embassy in London informed the
Foreign Office of the accession of Saudi Arabia to the 1928 treaty for the
renunciation of war, known as the Kellogg Pact.
96. On the 11th January the Saudi Government informed His Majesty’s
Charge d’Affaires that they had appointed their Minister in London to attend,
as an observer, the Fifth International Conference of Local Authorities In
March they expressed regret at their inability to participate in the International
Conference on Commercial Education.
97. An unsuccessful effort was made in 1930 to induce Ibn Saud to allow the
International Locust Bureau of Damascus to send a scientific mission to
investigate the extent and nature of the breeding grounds of the Nejdian locust.
Arising out of this it was suggested to the Saudi Government in 19'31 that they
should accede to the convention of the 20th May, 1926, under which the bureau
was created. They declined this suggestion. In July 1932 His Majesty’s Minister
in Jedda was instructed to communicate to them a copy of the fourth Report of
the Committee on Locust Control of the Economic A.dvisory Council, if he thought