مجموعة ٦/ ٢١(٢) "المملكة العربية السعودية: العلاقات مع حكومة بريطانيا: المفوضية السعودية في لندن والوزير البريطاني في جدة. تمديد معاهدة جدة." [و‎‎٢‎٧‎٦] (٧٦١/٥٥١)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
January 4, 1936.
CONFIDENTIAL.
E 6836/318/25
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Section 1.
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Mr. Eden to Sir A. Ryan (Jedda).
Foreign Office, January 4, 1936.
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(No. 7.)
Sir,
IN proposing the formal prolongation of the Treaty of Jedda of 1927 the
Saudi Government have raised, among other points, the question of amending
article 10 of the present treaty with a view to establishing the completely equal
status of the English and Arabic versions of the text. This article at present
runs as follows :—
££ The present treaty has been drawn up in English and Arabic. Both
texts shall be of equal validity; but in case of divergence in the interpreta
tion of any part of the treaty the English text shall prevail.”
2. The draft note to prolong the Treaty of Jedda which the Deputy Saudi
Minister for Foreign Affairs handed to you for consideration on the 30th March
last (a copy of which was enclosed in your despatch No. 113 of the 11th April)
contained the following paragraph :—
“ (6) The text of article 10 of the Treaty of Jedda, providing that the
English text shall prevail in case of divergence, does not imply discrimina
tion between the Arabic and English languages, the equal validity of which
is established by the said article, but is a matter of scientific facility when
it may be necessary for authorised persons to make comparison between the
texts. I therefore wish to receive from your Excellency confirmation of the
fact that the Arabic and English texts are of equal validity in sense and in
interpretation, and that neither of the two texts has preference over the
other.”
The comment on this proposal in your covering despatch was that, while
Fuad Bey’s actual formula seemed unduly complicated, you considered that the
principle of full equality between the two languages might well be accepted by
His Majesty’s Government in deference to the strong motive of amour-propre
and national sentiment which animated the Saudi Government in the matter.
You recalled that other Powers, such as France and Italy, had accepted the full
equal validity of the Arabic version of their treaty with Saudi Arabia, whereas
His Majesty’s Government had even gone so far as to admit the sole validity of
the Arabic text of the Anglo-Yemeni Treaty of 1934 (although, as was explained
to Fuad Bey, this had only been conceded in view of the very special and
primitive circumstances prevailing in the Yemen, where there was no official with
a proper knowledge of English).
3. You will recollect that an allusion to the question of language was
subsequently made in the course of the general discussion on the arrangements
for renewing the Treaty of Jedda at the fourth meeting with Fuad Bey Hamza
at the Foreign Office on the 5th July last.(’) Fuad Bey was inclined on that
occasion to try to make capital out of the example of the Anglo-Yemeni Treaty,
but Mr. Rendel informed him of the very special circumstances existing in that
case and made it clear that it could in no circumstances be regarded as a
precedent. Mr. Rendel added that the amendment of the present language of
article 10 was mainly a formal and technical point on which the competent
authorities would have to be consulted in due course.
4. The general practice of His Majesty’s Government (following a rule
laid down by Mr. Canning and Lord Palmerston) has always been that bilateral
treaties should be in two texts, viz., in English and in the language of the other
H Foreign Office Print, “ Eastern (Arabia),” July 5, Section 1.
[606 d—1]