Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎95r] (190/540)

ceased to have any significance for Saudi Arabia, except as a part of the problem
of her relations with Italy.
(14) The United States.
118. Mr. Twitchell’s appeal to the State Department to appoint an
American consul at Jedda bore no fruit in 1936, but it may be mentioned here that
an American consul-general from Egypt paid a visit to Jedda in January 1937
to ascertain the extent of United States interests in Saudi Arabia.
(C) Position in regard to the General International System and the League of
Nations.
119. The attitude adopted by Saudi Arabia towards sanctions is described
fully in the section on relations with Italy (paragraph 83). The Saudi Govern
ment declared that they found themselves compelled ‘ ‘ to observe strict neutrality
in the Italo-Ethiopian conflict unless special measures should be adopted granting
to States non-members of the League the same rights and privileges as those
accorded to member States.” At about the same time there was further discussion
between Fuad Bey and Sir Andrew Ryan about the possibility of Saudi Arabia
joining the League of Nations, but, like previous conversations on that subject,
it was exploratory, and non-committal on both sides. A tentative enquiry on the
subject by Sir Andrew Ryan two months later met with a guarded response from
Fuad Bey, and since then the subject has not been referred to by either side. The
fate of Ethiopia, a member of the League, may well have caused Ibn Saud to
wonder whether it was worth while joining an organisation which appeared to
be powerless against the very State which he seems to fear most.
120. The Saudi Government continue to regard with the greatest suspicion
and hostility the international sanitary measures which are provided for in the
Paris Convention of 1926 as a protection against possible danger from the
pilgrimage. In January they sent to the International Sanitary Office in Paris a
communication setting forth their objections to those articles of the convention
about which they had made reserves as being unnecessary, a hindrance to pilgrims,
harmful to the economic interests of Saudi Arabia, and unwarrantable inter
ference in Islamic religious affairs. The Egyptian Quarantine Board recorded
their polite recognition of the efforts made by the Saudi Government to improve
the hygienic conditions of Saudi Arabia, but insisted on the inadequacy of the
Saudi health reports, and stated their conviction that the Saudi Arabian
Kingdom, in spite of its adherence to the Rome Convention of 1907, must be
regarded from the sanitary point of view as a closed country. According to a
report in a Damascus newspaper, the Saudi Director-General of Public Health
obtained some success with the Office international d’Hygiene publique in Paris,
and persuaded them to accept his view that the pilgrim quarantine stations
outside the Hejaz were no longer necessary; but His Majesty’s Legation assume
that this report is incorrect.
121. One or two encouraging signs of readiness to recognise international
obligations were noticed in 1936. The Saudi Government agreed immediately, in
principle, to meet claims arising out of the loss of two mail bags which had been
delivered to the postal authorities in Hudaida during the Saudi occupation the
previous year, and they gave facilities to Mr. Maxwell Darling to carry out
investigations into the problem of the desert locust and promised similar facilities
for a second expedition which he proposes to make. They, however, show no
desire to participate in international accords which do not affect their interests.