Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎86r] (172/540)

usual for the Governor of Hasa and the Sheikh of Bahrein to correspond direct
about important official matters, Sir Andrew Ryan couched in mild language the
remonstrance which he felt bound to make. Fuad Bey had spoken of the direct
correspondence as having passed in the ordinary course, but Sir Andrew Ryan,
while admitting that correspondence between local authorities on^ routine matters
might be necessary and desirable, e.g., between the Director of Customs in Hasa
and subordinate authorities in Bahrein, reiterated his views about direct corres
pondence on official matters between the Saudi Government and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
States with which His Majesty’s Government were in special relations, said that
he considered correspondence about a formal agreement to be undesirable, and
pointed out that at the very least such correspondence was apt to lead to confusion,
as it had done in the case in point and on other occasions in the past.
46. When Sir Andrew Ryan visited the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in 1935 he discussed
informally with the Resident and the Political Agents concerned a suggestion
of his own that it would strengthen the position as aga inst Ibn Saud in discussions
affecting Bahrein and Koweit if means could be found to comer upon the sheikhs
the title of “ His Highness.” While aware of the difficulties, Sir Andrew Ryan
had long felt it a drawback, he said, that in correspondence with the Saudi
Government, in which he had so often to impress upon them the impoitance
attached by His Majesty’s Government to the position of the Sheikhs of Bahrein
and Koweit as independent rulers, he should have to use the title of
“his Excellency,” which, however respectable, was normally borne by subjects
and, moreover, had nowhere been so belittled by indiscriminate use as in the
Near and Middle East. Later, Sir Andrew Ryan’s suggestion was discussed by
the authorities concerned, with regard to the possible effect of its adoption upon
the two sheikhs in question and the Sheikhs of Qatar and the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . The
matter was still undecided at the end of the year.
47. The creation of a Saudi port on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , at Ras Tanura or
elsewhere, would injure the Bahrein transit trade considerably, and Bahrein
therefore watches with apprehension the efforts in that direction which are
being made by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.
(9) Koweit.
48. Having modified his intransigent attitude towards Koweit, as was
recorded in paragraph 46 of the 1935 report, Ibn Saud went even further and at
the end of January 1936 paid a state visit to the sheikh. His arrival in style,
with 673 officials and attendants in 145 cars and lorries, was matched by the
magnificent welcome accorded to him. The Mecca Saut-al-Hejaz reported this
visit as a “visit to the frontiers of Koweit in accordance with the request
of the Amir of Koweit,” and there is this much truth in the report, that when
the sheikh visited Riyadh in 1932 he invited Ibn Saud to return the visit, and
Ibn Saud accepted the invitation in principle. The Saudi Legation in London
informed the Foreign Office that the visit w^as purely personal and not for the
purpose of discussing business, and after the visit the sheikh assured the
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. that he and Ibn Saud had had no political conversations. The
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. points out the improbability that two Arabs of importance should
be together long without talking politics, but suggests that it was probably true
that politics were not the immediate object of the visit and that any political
conversations were general and incidental. Ibn Saud has since sent the sheikh
a cordial invitation to pay him a return visit. The Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. judged from
what the sheikh said that he would probably act on the invitation some time—
perhaps in the spring of 1937.
49. Ibn Saud was delighted with his reception at Koweit, and at once told
Fuad Bey of his gratification, and instructed him to do his best to promote a
settlement of the blockade question. The modified Saudi proposals referred to
in the last report were already being discussed with the sheikh by the Political
Agent at Koweit. The sheikh agreed to the institution of a system of manifests
for caravans and dhows leaving Koweit, to the establishment of customs posts
and the adoption of fixed routes, to giving an assurance that he would do his
best to prevent smuggling, and to provision for denunciation of the proposed
agreement at short notice, but he refused to apply the manifest system to the
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