Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎171v] (343/540)

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173. Further purchases of motor dhows by the Saudi Government are
recorded in paragraph 146. These craft have proved useful for military
transport despite their insignificant appearance, each being able to carry, it is
said, as many as 200 men or more, as well as supplies.
174. I he proceedings of H.M.S. Penzance in March 1933 included a visit
to the Farsan .Islands, made with the concurrence of His Majesty’s Minister, who
had consulted the Foreign Office, but had misconstrued their agreement as meaning
that the visit should be made without previous notification to the Saudi Govern
ment, whereas it was understood in London that there would be such a notification,
though not a request for permission. The immediate result was that, when the
sloop reached the islands, both the Sheikh of Little Farsan and the Saudi Governor
of Great Farsan objected, not discourteously, but firmly. So far as the Saudi
Government were concerned, the matter was disposed of in friendly conversation
between Sir Andrew Ryan and Fuad Bey Hamza on the 1st April/ The ensuing
correspondence with His Majesty’s Government clarified a situation which had
been obscure, though not really indefinite, since 1931. His Majesty’s Government
in the United Kingdom based themselves on their strongly held principle that
Asir had passed, de facto and de jure, under the sovereignty of Ibn Saud and
that the Farsan Islands are an integral part of Asir. They reaffirmed a standing
ruling that His Majesty’s ships should not, until further notice, visit Hejazi or
Asir ports, other than Jedda, except in cases of urgent necessity, and that, even
in such cases, His Majesty’s representative in Jedda should be consulted before
hand and the Saudi Government notified. In particular, visits to the Farsan
islands should for the time being be avoided and, if special circumstances should
render any such visit highly desirable, the matter should be referred in the first
instance to the Secretary of State. It was recognised that there was no longer
any logical basis for a distinction between Asir and the rest of Saudi Arabia, as
regards the searching of dhows by His Majesty’s ships in territorial waters, but
it was decided, for reasons connected with the slave trade, to maintain in this
respect the standing instructions mentioned in paragraph 200 (b) of the report
for 1931, which permit a greater freedom of search in Asiri waters than in those
of the Hejaz.
175. It was clear from the conversation between Fuad Bey Hamza and
Sir Andrew Ryan on the 1st April that the Saudi Government were very much
alive to the distinction between naval visits by notification and visits made with
the express permission of the Government of the country visited. Fuad Bey
intimated that they were studying the whole subject and that they were
contemplating the adoption of regulations which should be in accordance with
international practice. He did not indicate with any precision what view they
were likely to take and nothing further passed on the subject up to the end of
the year.
176. It may be mentioned that any final decision on this subject may affect
islands less conspicuously placed than the Farsans. Sloops have in the past
visited an island called Ashik, off the coast between the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Taashar and Medi,
the status of which may depend on the exact line of the frontier between Saudi
Arabia and the Yemen. No question has hitherto arisen regarding this isolated
place and His Majesty’s Government have left in abeyance one which arose in
1933 regarding a proposal (which would have necessitated cruising and anchoring
in Farsan waters) that a sloop should examine, for hydrographical purposes, a
shoal containing the islands of Jaferi and Kadheiya, about 5 miles south of Jizan.
XIII.—Miscellaneous Matters of British Interest.
General Position of British Subjects.
177. European British subjects had even less reason in 1933 than before
to complain of their treatment by the Saudi authorities. Although certain local
laws are vexatious, like the prohibition of alcohol, music, &c., and the passport
regulations, the restrictions as a whole weighed very lightly on them. There are
few houses which cannot run to cocktails quand meme; the police turn a deaf
ear to the gramophones; one unofficial British subject has an unconcealed wireless
set; there is no interference with such simple games and sport as Jedda affords;