File 2182/1913 Pt 8 'Arabia – Policy towards Bin Saud' [‎277r] (138/602)

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shown to have no right over us, nor right of protection over them—either in
the past nor in the future or hy law nor by custom—or, if you see that they
do not recognise him (as a "Chief) but rather reject him, then we leave the
order to God^and to you. You should then either prevent him completely
from encroaching on our territories and we wall not encroach on his, or you
should leave us to settle our own affairs. It would then be in the hand of
God to support or reduce one of us as He may be pleased to do.
But at present we listen to your orders, and shall not make any move,
neither on the part of us nor on ‘the part of our subjects. If he adheres to
\our orders it will be much the better, but if be disobeys them and encroaches
upon us, we will be obliged to punish him in return.
You made enquiries from us as to Avhat w T as the original cause for our
enmity to the Sheriff. In reply we know of no original reasons beyond what
we are mentioning hereafter : —
(1) In the beginning, our ancestors were very friendly with his Moham
mad ibn ’On, ’Abdullah ibn ’On, ’On-er-Bafi’, and ’Ali Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. were allied with
us and w r e were each supporting the other. But the 1 urks made an attempt
to separate us from one another, and we Sheriffs adhered to the lurks by force,
by their tongues and by their actions, although we were each confident of one
another. '
One the outbreak of trouble between Abdul Hamid and^ the Committee
of Union and Progress, the latter made an attempt to induce Sheriff Abdullah
(who died at Constantinople) to go out and make an agreement with Ibn
liashid against us. ^
Sheriff Abdullah having refused to execute their washes, they tried Sheriff:
Hossain, who after giving them an undertaking to combine with Ibn Baslnd
against us, made the trouble which is not hidden from your knowledge.
He firstlv went out towards Najd. Being at that time in friendly
relations witk‘him, we deputed Sad ibn Abdur Bab man to go to him for an
' explanation, when the Sheriff seized and imprisoned him and made some
demands from us. Being at that time forced to keep ^ him away from us,
owing to his active movements, we took some precautionary measures and.
settled our political matters amicably.
Wh^n matters were settled we made him understand that we could not
tolerate his unjustifiable intrigues. It was then that enmity between him
and us arose. . ^ ‘ . c
When God caused him to fall in troubles with the Turks—in the time ot
the Turkish Vali of Hedjaz, Wabib Beg—he was obliged to come to an under
standing with us in order to preserve his own interests.
We then as a result agreed with each other. But when the Ajman
• trouble arose and inuidents took place at A1 Bassa and when Ibn Rashid
betrayed the inhabitants of Al-Qasim notwithstanding the treaty he made
with us, the Sheriff, acting in accordance with a compact between them,
• deputed his son Abdullah with a view to occupy Ivajd. At that time he
demonstrated his enmity to our religion and to our worldly ambdions and
.wrote many provocative letters to the natives of Najd, one of them bei o
letter to‘ibn Darwish. The latter letter we have handed to you, the
remainder will, God wills, he handed to you as soon as we have found them.
This is the history of our relations with him, from the beginning up to the
end.
As a matter of fact, he is a man fond of intrigues. He loves to mix him-
self up with the affairs of Arabs. . This may be accounted lor by the laet that
the British have supported his paramount sovereignty over the Arabs, beeing
that the Arabs have paid no heed to his claim to sovereignty over them and
seeing that we and the other Arab Chieftains refuse to reoogmsd him as a
piramount sovereign oviing to his opposition to our religion and "OrWlyattas,
he is now making the desparate efforts that we see. But as you know the
Arabs still follow the example of their forbears. •