Coll 6/50 'Saudi Arabia: Saudi Relations with the Soviet.' [‎25r] (49/100)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTEEN (Arabia).
CONFIDENTIAL.
[E 2019/1225/25] No. 1.
Sir A. Ryan to Sir John Simon.—{Received Afrit 20.)
(No. 92. Confidential.)
Jedda, March 23, 1933.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 66 of the 28th February last relative
to an alleged agreement between the Saudi Government and the Soviet, I have
the honour to state that I asked Fuad Bey Hamza on the 18th March whether
he could tell me how matters stood. I explained that I felt encouraged to ask
him for any information which he could properly give, because the Saudi Mission
had taken His Majesty’s Government into their confidence in London last May,
and because I preferred to get news from him rather than from the bazaars,
where various rumours had been circulating. I reminded Fuad Bey that His
Majesty’s Government had defined their own attitude last year in a way which
showed that they did not stand in the way of any agreement between this country
and Soviet Russia, and that after my return to Jedda, the King had shown further
confidence in His Majesty’s Government by sending me a message explaining his
position.
2. Fuad Bey said that the Saudi Mission had been approached when in
Moscow. The Russians wanted, I understood him to say, three things—a removal
of the embargo on trade from Russia to Saudi Arabia, a treaty of friendship and
a commercial treaty. They had expressed readiness to accommodate the Saudi
Government on terms of short or of long credit. Fuad Bey did not go into details
of what these alternatives meant, but I gathered that the Soviet authorities had
proposed arrangements (presumably for a loan in the form of goods to be supplied
on credit) for a long period of years, and that the Saudi Government were
unwilling to commit themselves for more than say three years.
3. Fuad Bey admitted that, following on the Moscow conversations, there
had been a renewal of negotiations here, but said that only one thing had been
agreed, viz., the removal of the embargo on trade. This removal had not, however,
yet become effective, as the Soviet Government had undertaken not to ship goods
until the authorities here had had time to organise selling arrangements.
4. Fuad Bey referred back to the petroleum products transaction of 1931.
He said that in that year the Soviet Government were already pressing for a
removal of the embargo on trade, and that the King, feeling unable at that time
to give them satisfaction, had sanctioned the particular transaction to show that
his attitude was not due to ill will. Fuad Bey made no mention of any arrange
ment to pay off the debt in respect of the goods supplied in 1931 by remitting
duty on goods to be imported under the recent arrangement.
5. My conversation with Fuad Bey took place at a moment when I was
much taken up with matters of more immediate concern to me. I cannot, there
fore, reproduce it as accurately as I would wish, but I think I have got the
essential facts right is the above summary. He asked me to treat what he was
telling me as confidential, and I undertook to do this.
6. I am sending, a copy of this despatch to the Department of Overseas
Trade and to his Excellency the Viceroy of India.
I have, &c.
ANDREW RYAN.