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Coll 1/12 'Policy in the Protectorate: treaty with the Upper Yafai Chiefs, and other Chiefs in the Protectorate' [‎171r] (341/376)

The record is made up of 1 file (188 folios). It was created in 14 Feb 1929-1 Aug 1939. It was written in English. 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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* No. 40896/24 : not printed.
29
1828/25.
ANNEXURE 4.
The Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. , Aden, to the Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
[Telegram.]
(No. 48.) (Secret.)
^^IOth January, 1925. In reply to your telegram of 8 th
nuary,* I have to report that the draft terms of August, 1924,
having been communicated to him on 29th September, the Imam
replied on 26th October with a query as to whether Government
would further discuss some of the terms together with a recon
sideration of the draft he despatched on 3rd Zilhijja (3rd July).
My reply, on the 15th of November, pointed out the impossibility
of reconsideration of a draft on which was based the one approved
by Government. Further, 1 maintained that his draft had re
ceived the most friendly and fullest consideration. Without
allowing further discussion of the draft of the 29th Sep
tember, which had been approved by Government, 1 asked
him to notify me if any particular words of doubtful meaning
could be replaced by others without changing the sense, with
a view to expressing more clearly the desire of both Govern
ments. I also reiterated the anxiety of Government as well as
his own for the completion of the Treaty.
On 2nd December the Imam wrote me a somewhat ambiguous
letter, which after consultation with the Sultan of Lahej I took
to mean that Government’s draft was acceptable to him but that
he would prefer Article 3 to bear no reference to the Turks, the
right of whose claims to his country he never recognised. Also
in Article 4 he would like a limit of time fixed for the receipt of
a reply, and his own wording in Articles 6 and 12 he would like
restored.
• I replied to him on 8 th January in the following terms : —
I was aware that he never recognised the Ottoman in his
country, and explained that the reference to the Turks in Article
3 was in no way intended to convey the recognition of Ottoman
rights, but was for the purpose of describing conveniently the
actual frontier, determined by expert officers, that we wished
him to recognise, the boundary between the territory administered
by him and that of those tribes with whom he had, by the Treaty,
promised not to interfere. I suggested this addition to Article
4 :—“ this acknowledgment will be despatched by His Britannic
Majesty’s representative within ten days of receipt by him of His
Excellency the Imam’s letter of notice.”
I suggested that, as he had agreed to the principle embodied
in Article 4, the same as that in Article 6 and 12, he should
accept Government’s wording with the same addition as I now
suggested for Article 4.
With reference to the words, included by Government in
Article 12 but left out in the Imam’s wording of July, 1924, “ to
inaugurate any scheme in any port or place,” I pointed out that

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Content

The file contains papers regarding proposals to alter the basis of treaty relationships with tribes in the Aden Protectorate, comprising annotated treaty drafts, plus correspondence between the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, 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. Political Department, the Aden Resident (later Chief Commissioner, then Governor), and the Air Ministry.

The correspondence primarily concerns a proposal by the Resident (Sir Stewart Symes) to replace existing individual tribal treaties with a single instrument, and to cease payments of fixed stipends for general service in favour of payments for services rendered. The proposed change in policy was later abandoned by the Chief Commissioner, Sir Bernard Reilly.

The correspondence also concerns Symes's conference at Lahej, and the pact with the Lahej and other Chiefs to defend against Yemeni incursion into the Aden Protectorate; the deteriorating relationship between the Aden Protectorate and the Imam of San'a; and the suggestion by the Resident that a Chiefs' council should be established along the lines of the tribal councils in Baluchistan, to act as the central authority for the settlement of tribal affairs.

The papers dated 1939 concern the Tripartite Agreement with the Qu'ayti [Qu'ayṭī] and Kathiri Sultans in the Aden Protectorate; the treaty between the British Government and Sultan Salih bin Ghalib Al Qu'ayti [Ṣāliḥ bin Ghālib Al Qu'ayṭī], Sultan of Shihr and Mukalla; and the reconstituted Qu'ayti-Kathari Agreement of 1918.

A copy of the Report by Sir Gilbert Clayton on his Mission to the Imam of San'a (Colonial Office, 1926) is enclosed at folios 156-187.

The following treaty and agreement drafts are found within the file:

  • the agreement [the Lahej Pact] between the Chiefs of tribes and districts within the Aden Protectorate made 6 April 1929 in the presence of the Resident and Commander-in-Chief, ff 119-120;
  • a draft treaty between the Chiefs of Upper Yafa and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, agreeing to adhere to the purposes of the Lahej Pact of 6 April 1929, ff 84-85, 64-65, and 46;
  • a draft agreement reconstituting the Qu'ayti-Kathiri Agreement of 1918, between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, His Highness the Qu'ayti Sultan of Shihr and Mukalla, and the Kathiri Sultan of Seiyun, on behalf of the Sultans of the Family of 'Abdulla al Kathiri, dated 26 February 1939, ff 19-23;
  • a draft treaty between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, and Sultan Ja'far bin Mansur al Kathiri, Sultan of Seiyun, dated 2 March 1939, ff 17-18;
  • a draft treaty between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, and Sultan Salih bin Ghalib al Qu'ayti, Sultan of Shihr and Mukalla, dated 13 August 1937, ff 3-6.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio one).

Extent and format
1 file (188 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the folder.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 188; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 15-188; these numbers are also written in pencil and circled, but have been superseded and therefore crossed out. A typescript pagination sequence is present in parallel between ff 156-87.

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Coll 1/12 'Policy in the Protectorate: treaty with the Upper Yafai Chiefs, and other Chiefs in the Protectorate' [‎171r] (341/376), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/1450, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100029535657.0x00008e> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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