Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎82r] (164/540)

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that pan-Arab feeling must necessarily be diluted, and religious feeling is directed
rather towards the great agglomerations of Moslems in India and the Aetherlan s
East Indies which provide the bulk of the pilgrims to Mecca. In his first approach
to the Foreign Office on the subject of Palestine the Saudi Minister in London
claimed that Ibn Saud had prohibited demonstrations in the Hejaz which might
have been interpreted as hostile to His Majesty’s Government. Nothing was
heard by the Legation of any desire of the Hejazis to demonstrate, but it w ouio
doubtless have been tempting for the Syrian pan-Arabs, who are employed by
Ibn Saud to organise a show of feeling, and Ibn Saud may well have said that no
such demonstration should be made. It is known from the reports ox the Omcer
Commanding Desert Patrol in Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan that the tribes and towns ol northern
Hejaz were taking intense interest in the Palestine question, and whether their
interest was political or religious or racial or merely roused by the smell of loot,
the fact is that the dangerous strategic advantage which they have over Irans-
jordan was never used, and orders from Ibn Saud perhaps had as much to do
with this as the remarkable state of tranquillity maintained by the Iransjordun
authorities in their own territory. Ibn Saud also, if his assurance to His
Majesty’s Government can be believed, ordered Faudhi Qawaqji to leave the
territory of Saudi Arabia, where this firebrand had taken refuge on first lea\mg
Palestine. The Mecca press was kept under close control. Until the strike and
the disorders were called off it did not refer to them except to call for subscriptions
for the Palestine “ victims ” and publish lists of subscribers. Eventually, a sum
of £E. 500 was sent, and the collection of even this sum was said to have been
difficult The list of subscribers included the names of a minor royalty and two
or three of the leading officials. After the calling off of the strike the Mecca
papers permitted themselves to show a little more sympathy towards the Arab
movement, but very little in comparison with the articles which appeared in other
Arab countries and probably the minimum that Ibn Saud felt it incumbent on
him to show in order not to arouse the criticism of the “ Arab world.”
(3) Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan .
21 This report follows last year’s precedent in dealing with the question
of the lie of the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan frontier, as a matter affecting Anglo-Saudi relations,
in a later section (paragraph 63). There are no raids to be recorded, but com
plaints and counter-complaints were not lacking. To a considerable extent these
seem to have arisen out of the forward policy adopted by the Saudi Government
in the attempt, it is believed, to find out from our protests of our failure to
protest, whether particular places are admitted by His Majesty s Government
to be in Saudi territory or not. A regrettable feature of the year was the number
of written protests sent in bv the Saudi Arab Government about matters which
could and ought to have been disposed of by direct communication between the
frontier officials under the “Bon Voisinage ” Agreement of 1933. It is
unnecessary to go into these protests in detail. Ihere were four of them. The
first and most formidable was regarded by the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan authorities as a
means of defence against a complaint which the Officer Commanding Desert
Patrol had made direct to the Saudi frontier authorities, while none of the three
others was admitted by them to have any serious basis. Meanwhile, the monthly
reports of Major Glubb had mentioned several cases of infringement by the Saudi
authorities of the provisions against “enticement” in article 8 of the Had da
Agreement, some of them the private efforts of frontier police who might hope
to recover some arrears of pay from the taxes which would be levied on
Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan tribes migrating into Saudi Arabia, but some much more serious.
Towards the end of May His Majesty’s Minister was informed by Sheikh Yusuf
Yasin that the Saudi Government had decided to place the whole of the frontier
area from Jabal Aneza to the Gulf of Aqaba under the control of Abdul Aziz-bin-
Zaid, who would have wide powers and would take over the frontier duties
hitherto performed by the Governors of Kaf and Tebuk. As the relations between
Ibn Zaid and Major Glubb had been good in the past, and as, moreover, there had
been fewer incidents lately, Sir Andrew Evan recommended that the question of
enticement should remain in abeyance until the effect of Ibn Zaid’s appointment
could be seen, and that as to other complaints from our side he should use them
in a general way in course of discussion of the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan -Nejd frontier without
going into detail except in the single case of certain incidents in the Rum-Aqaba