"ملف 61/11 VI (D 102) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [ظ‎‎٥‎٣] (٥٢٢/١٢٧)

I
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While the foregoing observations may appear to be at once meagre and
cursive, I think they provide the best approach to the specific matters, on which
vou have been good enough to consult me. Before dealing with them, I have to
record one point which emerged from my conversation with Fuad Bey on the
29th December. When I mentioned the Wadi Tashar as being the terminal on
the sea of the frontier, as described by the Saudi Government themselves last year
(see my despatch No. 113 of the 14th April, 1933), Fuad Bey said that the actual
frontier abutted on the sea a little further south, i.e., at a place called Muwassim,
8 kilom. north of Medi, and that that place was occupied by Saudi forces. This
may account for the recent recrudescence of rumours, which, however, I still
believe to be confounded, of clashes between Saudi and Yemeni forces in the
immediate neighbourhood of Medi. Be this as it may, Fuad Bey's statement is
important as a matter of precision, although it does not affect the main argument
of the present despatch.
5. Although the Saudi-Idrisi Treaty of 1920 has not been published, I
think it can safely be assumed that it had no bearing on the frontier between the
territory remaining to the Idrisi and the Yemen. It is conceivable that Ibn Saud
may have promised the Idrisi support in resisting encroachment by the Imam,
but the only frontier that could have been definitely determined between the
parties was an inland one, as the Idrisi was then treating as an independent ruler,
with the Yemen to the south of him and the Hejaz to the north. It indeed seems
probable that Ibn Saud and the Idrisi did not define the whole even of the inland
frontier between them. In Mr. Mayers' despatch to the Foreign Office, No. 6 of
the 19th January, 1927, Dr. Abdullah Damluji is described as having said that
the treaty of 1920 " only defined the north-south frontier in the Muhail-Abha
region .... and did not attempt to make a partition between Asir and the
territory of the Imam Yahya." I derived the same impression from my conver
sation with Fuad Bey Hamza on the 29th December, and it is strengthened by
a consideration of the situation at the time. Any agreement between the Idrisi
and Ibn Saud, recognising the latter as ruler of portions of inland Asir bordering
on the Yemen, might have precipitated a question between Ibn Saud and the
Imam; but in 1920 Ibn Saud was pursuing another objective which made it
specially important for him to disinterest the Idrisi in the Abha region. This
was the absorption into his dominions of that region, in which the head of the
former ruling family, the Beni Aidh, had made himself independent after the
1 uikish ev acuation at the end of 1918. Ibn Saud achieved this immediate obiect
m 1922. *
It appears to me fairly certain that Ibn Saud did not become seriouslv
interested m the frontier between what is now Asir Tihama and the Yemen until
c time oi the second treaty, which he made with the Idrisi in 1926. As he was
+i ei T^ C ^ U1 u in i^i Iover what had been the Idrisi's territory, and as
the Idrisi had been hard pressed by the Imam, it became important for Ibn Saud
to make sure that he was getting all the territory to which the Idrisi could give
fv. 1 t 'i ■ • i ag ? e u e ^ e transfer might be held to include territory from which
Q a v. ^ on S fui ly ejected by the Imam, but for the reasons given in
P ^ 0 P. , ov e' no t think that places like Hodeida, or even Loheya, couW
t <:>r . now f having at any time been a part of the Idrisi's
m y v 'ew what the Imam did in regard to those places in 1925
t i t i ■ ■ i possess ie Idnsi of what had lawfully been his, but to recover what
tions sepm ^ f v a ^ imperrnanently occupied. All historical considera-
■as distinct from Asir ^ ^ Loheya fom P art of the ^en proper
7 Before dealing with the one remaining question I mav mention the one
nolew w ! nch 1 has oocllrr ed to me. It might be suggested that
the comino- into fv,..f 'lV. 1 -n" sense m any of the territories concerned until
and that ea?h rnW's riltft r e at y , of . La "sanne between Turkey and the Allies,
moment This d T nd on what h e actually held at that
consenuential Sa'iufi plnim P, . " ln support of an Idrisi claim and »
hTDSio.^ LO u heya ' which P laces the Idrisi had 11
T ; P ssion at that moment, but I do not think it could be serionslv sustained.
wftiC BevTidT wr- ^ ^ conversation of the 2 9 t CXr
n iuad Bey, and I was interested to hear him throw out a reference to the
was quite caauat n and a tha^t^cal^ et T\ 1 )ass C to t 'the U ' t ' ma ' e ^ , SitUati0n ' b f th"
alleged agreement of 1931 between Ibn Saud and Se I^m q uestlon of