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File 2182/1913 Pt 10 'N.W. Frontier: Proposed Russian zoological expedition' [‎495r] (584/664)

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The record is made up of 1 item (330 folios). It was created in 28 May 1919-13 Jan 1920. It was written in English and Arabic. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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SECRET.
Printed for the Foreign Office. June 1919.
- [I.D.C.E., 21st Minutes.]
FOREIGN OFFICE.
INTER-DEPARTMENTAL CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS,
Minutes of a Meeting held at the Foreign Office on Friday
June 13, 1919, at 7 p.m.
Present:
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G., G.C.S.L, G.C.I.E.
(in the Chair).
Right Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P., Secretary
of State for India, India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Lieutenant-General Sir H. V. Cox, K.C.B.,
K.C.M.G., C.S.I., Military Secretary,
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Mr. J. E. Shuckburgh, C.B., India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Mr. G. L. Barstow, C.B., Treasury.
Major-General Sir P. P. be B. Radcliffe,
K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., Director of Mili
tary Operations, War Office.
Captain H. E. F. Aylmer, Admiralty.
Mr. G. J. Kidston, Foreign Office.
Miss Gertrude Bell.
Position in the
Hejaz.
Major H. W. Young, D.S.O. (Secretary).
[987]—727
The Chairman said that at the last meeting it had been decided
e m e y to warn Ibn Saud that we were on King Hussein’s side,
e^was told that unless he immediately withdrew his forces from the
-i ?. , Iui ma area, he would be regarded as having adopted
an attitude of definite hostility towards His Majesty’s Government,
and that m that event the rest of his subsidy would at once be dis
continued, and he would forfeit all advantages secured under the
ieaL} o ecember, 1915. This message could not have reached
^ . ai i c /lcl d § J lc l a,( l’ a co I j y ^ appeared to have been sent
, to him from the Red Sea side, and to have been delivered to him
actuaily on the field of battle. The military position, when it was
decided to send this message, had been that Abdulla was apparently
m the superior position, and the main object had been to prevent
the spread of hostilities. But since then the military balance had
swung round, and Abdulla had sustained a disastrous defeat. The
latest reports indicated that Ibn Saud was in occupation of Tarabah,
and that Taif was seriously threatened. An ominous feature was
Lolonel Wilson s report, that Hussein and Abdulla appeared to have
lost all influence with the troops. Since the last meeting a
suggestion had been made by the Foreign Office to General Allenby
that 1 eisal should be sounded on the desirability of goino- i n person
to his father s assistance, but General Allenby had not considered it
advisable to act in this sense. He had, 'however, agreed that
Oolonei Lawrence would be more usefully employed in the Heiaz
than m Syria. It was not known exactly where Colonel Lawrence
was ; he had apparently landed in Crete with the intention of
visiting Knossos, and he was to have proceeded by aeroplane, leaving
Rome on the 5th or 6th June. He was now presumably in Egypt,

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Content

The title provided at the beginning of this item does not relate in any way to the item's contents. Part 10 is in fact concerned with the dispute between Bin Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and King Hussein of Hejaz [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī, King of Hejaz], and British policy towards both.

The item begins with reports that Bin Saud's Akhwan [Ikhwan] forces have advanced to Tarabah (also spelled Turaba in the correspondence) [Turabah], in Hejaz, and includes details of His Majesty's Government's proposed response, which is to inform Bin Saud that if he does not withdraw his forces from Hejaz and Khurma then the rest of his subsidy will be discontinued and he will lose all advantages secured under the treaty of 1915. Included are the following:

  • copies of translations of correspondence between Bin Saud and King Hussein;
  • discussion as to whether the British should send aeroplanes to assist King Hussein;
  • minutes of inter-departmental meetings between representatives of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the War Office, the Foreign Office, and the Treasury, on the subject of Bin Saud, held at the Foreign Office and chaired by the Foreign Secretary, Earl Curzon of Kedleston [George Nathaniel Curzon];
  • discussion as to how the British should respond in the event of Bin Saud's Wahabi [Wahhabi] forces taking Mecca and advancing on Jeddah, which it is anticipated may result in the evacuation of a large number of Arabs and British Indians;
  • discussion regarding a proposed meeting between Harry St John Bridger Philby and Bin Saud on the Gulf coast;
  • a report by Captain Herbert Garland [Director of the Arab Bureau, Cairo], entitled 'Note on the Khurma Dispute Between King Hussein and Ibn Saud';
  • a document entitled 'Translation of a Memorandum on the Wahabite [sic] Crisis', addressed to the High Commissioner, Egypt, by Emir Feisal [Fayṣal bin Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī], in which Feisal implores the British to take military action against the Wahabi movement;
  • copies of translations of letters addressed to Bin Rashid [Saʿūd bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Rashīd], from Bin Saud and King Hussein respectively, which provide the perspectives of both on recent events at Khurma and Tarabah;
  • a memorandum from the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department, entitled 'Memorandum on British Commitments to Bin Saud'.

The item's principal correspondents are the following:

This item also contains translated copies of correspondence between Hussein and the then High Commissioner at Cairo, Sir Arthur Henry McMahon [commonly referred to as the McMahon-Hussein correspondence], dating from July 1915 to January 1916.

Extent and format
1 item (330 folios)
Written in
English and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script
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File 2182/1913 Pt 10 'N.W. Frontier: Proposed Russian zoological expedition' [‎495r] (584/664), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/390/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036528098.0x0000c6> [accessed 19 April 2024]

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