مجموعة ٦/ ٢١(٢) "المملكة العربية السعودية: العلاقات مع حكومة بريطانيا: المفوضية السعودية في لندن والوزير البريطاني في جدة. تمديد معاهدة جدة." [و‎‎٢‎٧‎٨] (٧٦١/٥٥٥)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
December 30, 1935.
CONFIDENTIAL.
E 7575/318/25
H O *7
O O /
1936
Section 2.
S'zr ,4. Ryan to Sir Samuel Hoare.—(Received December 30.)
(No. 353.)
Sir, Jedda, December 10, 1935.
IN my telegram No. 217 of the 8th December, I had the honour to report
the results of the action taken by me in Riyadh on your despatch No. 311 of the
S( i I , 24th October regarding the question of slavery in Saudi Arabia. I have nothing
to add to what I stated in that telegram, except that I satished myself that it
would be useless to press Fuad Bey further on the three points which I was unable
to settle with him. I understood him to say that, if we agreed to the Saudi
slavery regulations as drafted, with the slight further modifications now agreed
on, Ibn Saud would be prepared to promulgate them in return for a promise by
His Majesty’s Government to renounce their right of manumission after a short
interval.
2. I dealt with the question of slavery, as in earlier discussions, as the
most important of the matters connected with the proposed prolongation of the
validity of the Treaty of Jedda. In this connexion I would offer the following
observations on paragraphs 12 to 14 of your despatch No. 311 of the 24th October.
Fuad Bey made no reference at Riyadh to the possibility of a new general treaty
between Great Britain and Saudi Arabia. The conditions foreshadowed in
paragraph 13 of your despatch, as those in which the conclusion of such a treaty
might be possible, have certainly not arisen. On the other hand, I see no reason
why the alternative course of prolonging the validity of the present treaty should
not still be pursued, despite the failure which has attended my efforts to secure a
settlement of the question of the eastern and south-eastern frontiers and the
uncertain future of other questions not discussed at Riyadh, notably that of air
facilities, which I preferred to postpone, and that of the Transjordan frontier,
one in which it is for the Saudi Government to make the next move. I have
throughout been averse from the alternative discussed in paragraph 14 of your
despatch, if it can be avoided. In these circumstances I should prefer, subject
to your approval, to proceed still on the lines of the second sentence of para
graph 12 of your despatch, that is to say to dispose of the question of slavery,
if this is possible, and then to proceed with the prolongation of the Treaty of
Jedda by an exchange of notes, dealing only with the right of manumission, Arms
Traffic and the language of the treaty.
3. As I am not yet in a position to report any further discussion of
importance regarding the last two subjects that I have mentioned, I can most
conveniently record the position in regard to them in this despatch :—
(a) In the course of the conversations at Riyadh I gave Fuad Bey the text
of the Arms Traffic formula proposed in paragraph 7 of your despatch
p. xf No. 321 of the 6th November. Fuad Bey did not seem to like it very
' 0 muchTdbut we did not discuss it systematically and I propose, in
accordance with paragraph 8 of that despatch, to postpone such
discussion, if possible, until we have got further with slavery.
(b) As regards the language of the treaty, I told Fuad Bey in the course of
our general conversations that I thought His Majesty's Government
would be prepared to give the Saudi Government satisfaction on this
point, but that it was so subsidiary to the other issues that I had
ascertained the general views of His Majesty’s Government on the
subject only just before leaving England and had not had formal
instructions.
If you approve of the general proposals in this despatch, and if I can dispose
successfully of the questions of slavery and Arms Traffic, I propose to act on the
assumption which I expressed in a minute in the Foreign Office file just before I
[581 gg—2]