Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎178r] (356/540)

[8544] b 3
his character or qualifications, he was suspect in the eyes of the Saudi Govern
ment. These suspicions came to a head at the time of the Ibn Rifada affair, when
the Acting Saudi Minister for Foreign Affairs accused him by name, in
confidential conversation with Sir Andrew Ryan, of being an accomplice in the
general plot against Ibn Saud, which lay behind the invasion of Ibn Rifada. He
was recalled to Bagdad early in June, and left Jedda on the 11th June. There
"as no reason to read into this more than a desire on the part of his Government
to consult him on outstanding questions and to have him at hand for the visit
of the Amir Feisal’s mission. It was, however, arranged, during or soon after
that visit, that a new Charge d’Affaires should be appointed. Colonel Reshid
Bey-al-Khoja, the Iraqi consul-general at Beirut, was chosen to succeed Dr. Naji.
He did not, however, proceed to Jedda, and was eventually given a portfolio in
the new Cabinet formed in Iraq in November. From the date of Dr. Naji’s
departure up to the end of the year the Iraqi Legation was run by subordinates,
some of whom are also supposed to be tarred with the Hashimite brush, but who
have carried on discreetly. Rushaid Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the Saudi Charge d’Affaires and
consul-general designate at Bagdad, has never proceeded to his post and seems
to be never heard of.
13. The chief event of Dr. Naji’s short tenure of office was the exchange
of ratifications of the treaties negotiated by Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. in April 1931. This
took place at Mecca on the 10th May. The most important other matters which
arose between Iraq and Saudi Arabia in 1932 were the following :—
(i) Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was most anxious that the Iraqi Legation should be
established at Mecca, and believed in his breezy way that he had obtained the
assent of the Saudi Government to this. Dr. Naji was accordingly appointed to
Mecca, but Ibn Saud would have none of it. The controversy over this was acute,
and helped to make Dr. Naji’s position even more difficult than it would in any
case have been. He increased the suspicions of the Saudi Government by
expressing a wish to take a house at Taif and by visiting Medina just after
Ibn Rifada had invaded the Hejaz. He visited the King at Taif on the 8th June,
and made a last unsuccessful attempt to get his consent to a Legation at Mecca.
The question was finally settled during the Amir Feisal’s visit to Bagdad, when
it was agreed that the Legation should be at Jedda, but that the Iraqi
representative should have access to Mecca.
(ii) In February a Saudi force went to Judaidat-al-Arar, on the Iraqi-Nejd
frontier, and claimed the right to levy taxes on the tribes in the vicinity. It
withdrew on the appearance of Iraqi desert police cars, but the Nejdis
reappeared in March and reasserted the claim to levy taxes. The place is so
marginal that the well which gives it its importance may be bisected by the
frontier. The Iraqi Government decided not to maintain the territorial claim,
which they were at first inclined to advance, but they objected to any taxation of
Iraqi tribes, and invoked an article in the Uqair protocols prohibiting the
military use by either side of watering places on the frontier. The dispute was
still being pursued in June, but, as nothing has been heard of it in British circles
since, it would appear to have fizzled out as a practical question.
(iii) Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was very keen on establishing a motor route for pilgrims
from Iraq to the Hejaz. Protracted negotiations have resulted in an agreement
in principle that a service of Iraqi cars should run from Nejef, via Hail (not
Jauf, as the Iraqis at first proposed), to Medina, but no further. It has been
further agreed that all quarantine and other administrative arrangements,
concerning both parties shall be concentrated at Jumaima, on the frontier, and
not just outside Medina, as at first suggested by the Saudi Government. At the
end of the year there was still a difference as to whether permanent buildings
should be erected at Jumaima, an Iraqi desideratum strongly opposed by the
Saudi Government. This was the only matter of principle still in dispute, but
much spade work remained to be done. It is doubtful how far Ibn Saud really
favours the project.
(iv) As a result apparently of disputes over the taxation of tribes, both
Governments had occasion to complain of violations of the frontier. The
Iraqi Government alleged at least two such violations, but had to admit and
apologise for a light-hearted escapade on the part of a newly-appointed
commandant of police in the Southern Desert, who let himself be provoked into
pushing well into Nejd territory. These little affairs do not seem to have had
any important effect on relations.