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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎68r] (136/540)

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The record is made up of 1 file (268 folios). It was created in 18 Apr 1931-18 May 1945. 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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41
attitude on the Alexandretta question an attempt by what they called the Arabs’
traditional enemies to steal a part of the Arab heritage. This was not the case.
Turkey was not the enemy of the Arabs. If Arabs had suffered under the Ottoman
regime, so had Turks, and, moreover, in many cases the guiding force in the
administration of the Sultans had been Arab, and not Turk. Again, Turkey had
stood out consistently after the war against the establishment of mandates over
the Arabs, and had wished them to direct their own destinies. Republican
Turkey, too, had officially adopted as its policy the principle of leaving the Arab
countries to the Arabs, but she would not agree that the Arabs should be in a
position to draw away from their Turkish nationality a population of a region
bordering on Turkey.
155. Ibn Saud’s anxiety about Alexandretta, to which reference was made
last year (paragraph 109), found expression in January, when he sent Fuad Bey
with a message to His Majesty’s Minister, to say that lie was receiving telegrams
from all parts of the world urging him to do something about Alexandretta, and
that he would be grateful for the advice of His Majesty’s Government: he did not
wish to disturb his good relations with the Turks, but what was he to do? How
would it be if he appealed to the Turks? Speaking in language which was
subsequently approved by the Secretary of State, Sir R. Bullard said that, so far
as his knowledge went, His Majesty’s Government considered that Alexandretta
ought to remain within the Syrian group of territories, and were bending their
efforts to that end. If His Majesty made an appeal to the Turks, they might ask
what standing Saudi Arabia had in the matter. The appeal might arouse
memories of the Arab revolt and make the Turks more, instead of less, difficult.
156. Fuad Bey then spoke of the King’s suspicion of Turkey, of which the
Legation had already had evidence from time to time; the King believed that
Turkey had never really abandoned her claim to Mosul and its oil, and that, if
she had her way with Alexandretta, it would encourage her in her policy towards
Iraq. Fuad Bey said that he himself had received assurances when he went to
Angora that Turkey did not covet any Arab territory, but her Alexandretta
policy was in conflict with those assurances. Sir R. Bullard, after pointing out
that the basis of the Turkish claim w T as that the population of the Alexandretta
region was not Arab but Turkish, uttered a warning against the dangerous
confusion which might result from the use of the phrase “ Arab world ” in two
different ways. There was an Arab world in the sense that there were
communities Arab in language and Moslem in religion which might have certain
sympathies in common, but Fuad Bey seemed to be using the phrase as though it
represented a political entity which was called upon to take action whenever the
interests of any Arabs anywhere were affected. This seemed a dangerous doctrine
and likely to cause serious trouble if acted upon. Fuad Bey ought not to be
misled by the case of the appeal of the Arab rulers on the Palestine question,
which had a strictly limited application, and where, moreover, the other party
concerned was the United Kingdom Government, whose sympathies in regard to
Arabs were well known. It would be a fatal mistake to suppose that interven
tion on behalf of Arab interests could always be made with advantage, and
would always be well received. Fuad Bey said that these views did not differ
essentially from his, but the King wanted to know the views of His Majesty’s
Government.
157. In reporting on this interview, Sir R. Bullard said that he had
received the impression that the King and Fuad Bey had been brought face to
face with reality and that this had given them a salutary shock. Ibn Saud had
just intervened in regard to Palestine, but the Alexandretta problem was more
difficult. He could not suppose that Kamal Ataturk’s policy would be influenced
by an appeal from the King of Saudi Arabia, but must realise that the Arab case
depended mainly upon France and Great Britain, and not at all upon himself
and his Arab fellow rulers. This realisation, Sir R. Bullard hoped, might come
to other Arabs also, and tend to discourage the wilder pan-Arab schemes and to
spread the conviction that it would be better for the Arabs in the long run not
to try to upset the policy of His Majesty’s Government in the Near and Middle
East.
158. Ibn Saud made a similar move in Bagdad. According to a statement
made to His Majesty’s Ambassador by the Iraq Foreign Minister, the Saudi

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Content

This file contains copies of annual reports regarding the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia) during the years 1930-1938 and 1943-1944.

The reports were produced by the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard) and sent to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (and in the case of these copies, forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India), with the exception of the reports for 1943 and 1944, which appear to have been produced and sent by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires at Jedda, Stanley R Jordan.

The reports covering 1930-1938 discuss the following subjects: foreign relations; internal affairs; financial, economic and commercial affairs; military organisation; aviation; legislation; press; education; the pilgrimage; slavery and the slave trade; naval matters. The reports for 1943 and 1944 are rather less substantial. The 1943 report discusses Arab affairs, Saudi relations with foreign powers, finance, supplies, and the pilgrimage, whilst the 1944 report covers these subjects in addition to the following: the activities of the United States in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East Supply Centre, and the Saudi royal family.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (268 folios)
Arrangement

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

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 269; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at 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 present in parallel between ff 2-12 and ff 45-268; these numbers are also written in pencil but are not circled.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎68r] (136/540), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2085, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100036362870.0x000089> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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