مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [و‎‎٨‎٨] (٨٠٢/١٧٦)

3
HI- Relations with Powers outside Arabia.
341. As was reported last month, in paragraph 308, the Saudi Slavery
. guiation was published on the 2nd October. A translation of the regulation
_ ls a ^ a . ed to this report. It will be a long time before one can safely draw
f 10 - abo ut the effect of this regulation. The most diverse comments have
^ eI1 heard, from prophecies that slavery will now gradually disappear, to state
ments that for the first time for years the former wealthy inhabitants of Mecca
aie p nil sing Jbn Saud as having at last done something for them by sending up
the value of their slaves. '
342. Sheikh usuf Yasin was intensely anxious to publish the news about
e signature of the agreement with His Majesty’s Government, and even to
P u j ear P® s t possible moment. The inference drawn was
that Ibn Saud felt that the limelight had been diverted from him by the Syrian
and Egyptian Treaties and by Nuri Pasha’s activities in Palestine,' and wanted
to bring ^ back by showing what a favourable agreement he could wrest from
His Majesty s Government. Out of deference to the practice of His Majesty’s
Government whereby treaties are not published in full until laid before Parlia
ment, the Umm-al-Qura published only a summary of the agreement, though it
might almost have published the full text, since the summary mentioned all the
provisions, viz., the extension ” of the Treaty of Jedda. the manner in which
pilgrims effects are to be dealt with, the recognition of the Arabic text of the
treaty as of equal value with the English, the reservation of rights on both sides
t?• re ?/? r - ^°,^ ( l aba an d Ma an, the renunciation of the right of manumission by
His Majesty s Government, and the conditions governing the purchase of arms
m Great Britain by the Saudi Arab Government. A leading article in the same
number of the l 1 mm-al-Qura took pains to point out that there w r as no more in
the relations of 8 >audi Arabia with His Majesty's Government than with any other
State, and congratulated the Government on the policy which it had adopted “ in
the interest of Islam in general and of the Arabs in particular.”
343. His Majesty’s Minister has received a private letter from Sheikh Yusuf
i asm saying that Ibn Saud is thinking of sending missions of young Saudis
abroad to study aviation, and asking him to ascertain whether His Majesty’s
Government would be prepared to receive and assist such missions, and, if so what
help could be given and what would be the terms and the expense. Some ten to
fifteen students would be sent every year, for training in civil and/or military
aviation. His Majesty’s Minister, who does not believe that any good could come
o such a pioject, ha.s sent an interim reply which, while as sympathetic as
possible, lemmas sheikh Yusuf Yasin that His Majesty's Government are at
present, so fully occupied with the reorganisation and expansion of the Royal
Air Force that they may be unable to grant the facilities without which the result
coulu not be satisfactory to either party. Of all the reasons which may have
prompted this request the most probable seems to be that the Italians are offering
to train more Saudi “eagles” (doubtless without charge), and to deliver the
other three aeroplanes, that the Saudi Government, from fear of Italy and
pleasuie at getting something for nothing, are disposed to accept, and that to
lorestall any criticism on our part they have made a proposal which if accepted
b y B-is Majesty s Government at all, could only be accepted on financial terms
which Ibn Saud could reasonably say were too heavy for his purse.
344. The Italian Legation continues to distribute regularly copies of Arabic
newspapers from Italian North Africa which are full of their propaganda To
the Band Barca and the Adi, which have been familiar here for some time has
i )een acb * e( ^ f be R a <lib-al-'Atid of Benghazi, which in its issue of the
10 th September prints an anti-British article in the usual vein. The hypocritical
British, while pretending to defend the poor Abyssinians against Italy, are
Topping hie on the heads of Indians, killing poor people in Palestine, and under
mining Arab freedom in the “nine districts of the Yemen ” (an allusion to the
rulers within the Aden Protectorate). It goes on to represent the British Empire
as terrified by the Italian threat to its communications, and as using Palestine as
a pawn in its scheme of imperial defence.
345. On the 20th October the influence of Italian propaganda on the local
press was noticed for the first time, when the Saut-J-Hejaz reproduced two
items of news from Arabic newspapers distributed by the Italian Legation. One
reported the lelease of all who had opposed the Italians in North Africa and
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