'File 1/A/38 I Negotiations with Bin Saud re:- Eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia with Qatar & Trucial Oman.' [‎59r] (122/452)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOYERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia). September 24, 1934.
CONFIDENTIAL. Section 4.
[E 5996/2429/25]
No. 1.
Fourth Meeting with Fuad Bey Hamza, held at the Foreign Office on the
September 24, 1934.
Note by Sir Andrew Ryan.
FUAD BEY, accompanied by Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, came to see me this
morning in accordance with the arrangement made at the third conversation, that
we should discuss separately the question of the Government of India’s
dispensaries in the Hejaz and possibly other minor questions.
2 . I explained to Fuad Bey that the question of the dispensaries, though
important, was non-political and concerned the Indian authorities. Mr. Rendel
had therefore asked me to go into the matter with himself and Sheikh Hafiz Wahba.
I reminded Fuad Bey that when he and I last discussed the question in Jedda we
had seemed to be approaching a solution, but the discussion had been interrupted
by his illness. The matter had now taken a new and less favourable turn, as the
Saudi Government had addressed a circular to Mr Calvert, in which they had
asked for separate statements of medical supplies imported for the use of members
of the Legation and those imported for general dispensary use, in order that
customs duty should be levied on the latter. I read to him the mam poitions ot
the telegraphic correspondence, and said that there appeared to be two miscon
ceptions viz., (a) the Saudi Government seemed to think that medical supplies
not intended for the use of the Legation staff were sold to the public, whereas m
fact the quantities of medicine supplied in return for payment were negligible,
and’(6) they seemed to think that Fuad Bey and I had dealt only with the status
of the Indian medical officers, whereas we had, m fact, dealt with the whole
question of the dispensaries.
3. I urged that the Saudi Government should not try to force the issue by
assuming that stores, other than those for the use of the members of the Legation
were liable to duty. The Jedda dispensary had existed for some fifty years, and
had always enjoyed immunity as part of the British mission. Moreover, the
Turkish Government had exempted from duty supplies imported by foreign
charitable institutions as such, not only those for diplomatic use. The b ^iic
dispensary at Mecca had been opened with Ibn Saud s approval m 1925. 1 here
was I admitted, no written record of this, as the arrangement had been made
between the King and the Indian vice-consul, but the best indication of the
King’s attitude at that time was that for the first year he had provided a house
free°of rent for the dispensary at Mecca. I was prepared, I said, to pursue the
question on the lines foreshadowed in my discussion with Fuad Bey at Jedda, but
I could not admit, pending a settlement, that supplies for the dispensaries were
liable to customs duty, and I deprecated the attempt of the Saudi Government to
enforce their own view in this respect before the whole matter had been thrashed
out. The case was a unique one, and while not claiming that the exemption could
be claimed under general international usage, there were strong reasons for
““TXid Bey suggested that no reliance could be placed on earlier precedent,
as the Treaty of‘Jedda had swept away all such precedents. I replied that the
Treaty of Jedda had not done this, but had said that our re ations were to be
based on principles of international law International law Question
established custom. I was quite prepared to seek a t y h °! ln n?f es f 0 r
but I suggested that customs immunity should be granted foi the supplies to
next pilgrimage season, in order that the present situation should be preserved
uitflot until we could work out the solution. # i •
5 ’ Fuad Bey said that he had had nothing on the subject from his Goverm
ment, and was not in a position to discuss it. I said tha yfU f“m
proposal, i.e., that the stores for next pilgrimage season should be exempted f 0
^206 aa—4]