Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎212v] (425/540)

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Sir A. Ryan and evinced a strong desire to restore their relations. On the
17th June the Minister went out of his way to express the friendliness ot his
personal dispositions. This, aided by the interested but not insincere co-opera
tion of Fuad Bey, probably did something to re-establish Sir A. Ryan in the good
graces of His Majesty, but Ibn Saud is too vindictive a man to do more than
forgive. He will not forget an injury, real or imaginary. At the most he was
prepared to tolerate a representative whose language he had disliked, subject to
good conduct in future. The sequel to the story belongs to the early part of 1932.
62. It must not be supposed that throughout this period of tension the
relations of His Majesty’s Government and the Legation with Ibn baud and his
Government were other than correct. The King’s outward attitude towaids
Sir A. Ryan did not cease to be gracious, and he knows too well on what side
his bread is buttered to quarrel with His Majesty’s Government more than his
own obstinacy and the unwisdom of his advisers so frequently cause him to do.
There were, indeed, moments of cordiality. In the realm of pure courtesy,
Ibn Saud had the satisfaction of receiving on the 8th January, the anniversary
of his accession to the Throne of the Hejaz, a personal telegram of congratulation
from King George V, an attention which it was decided to bestow after anxious
consideration by His Majesty’s Government of its suitability from the point of
view of precedent. Later in that month the King finally overcame his resentment
against the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. to the extent of consenting to
receive a visit from Colonel Biscoe, and suggesting that it might be paid in Jedda
rather than stand over until he himself could go to Nejd (see paragraphs 45
and 46). The successful termination of the negotiations with Iraq led to an
exchange of courtesies between the King and the Hejazi personages on the one
hand and His Majesty’s Government and their representatives in Bagdad and
Jedda on the other. On the latter occasion the King expressed proper gratitude,
and with every appearance of sincerity, for the efforts of His Majesty s Govern
ment and the British intermediaries to promote an understanding between him
and Iraq. By a happy accident a present of wireless sets, which Sir F. Humphrys
had promised him as a memento of the 4 c Lupin Conference, but which had been
delayed, arrived just about the time of the conclusion of the final negotiations
with Iraq; and the gift was accompanied by an expression of the goodwill of
His Majesty’s Government, in addition to that of the High Commissioner’s
personal sentiments.
63. Even after making allowance, however, for these brighter features, it
must be admitted that the situation between His Majesty’s Government and
Ibn Saud towards the end of the year was none too happy. It may pertinently
be asked whether its deterioration’was due in any measure to foreign influences.
The answer is almost certainly in the negative. No Power other than Great
Britain carries much weight with the King. It would be repugnant to his
sentiments to throw himself into the arms of Soviet Russia, though a mild
flirtation does not come amiss, if it gets a man cheap benzine. Othei gieat
Powers hardly count, politically, in Ibn Sand’s sphere, except in so far as it
gratifies him to have their recognition and to be able to point to treaty relations
with them as a hall-mark of the respectability of his position among the nations.
His relations with one of them, Italy, are tinged with mistrust of her pretensions
in the Red Sea and her association with the Imam Yahya. To the lesser European
Powers he can look only for advantages of a non-political nature, such as financial
transactions with the Dutch, who have a strong business interest in the Hejaz
owing to the pilgrimage or a deal in arms with Poland like that which was
brought off in 1930. As for his neighbours or quasi-neighbours in the Middle
East, there is none whose support he could ask without oveicoming personal
distaste and ambition on his own side or else indifference on the other. He hates
Egypt and Iraq and 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 . Persia is spiritually, if not geographically,
remote The Turks have gone too European and too irreligious to concern
themselves much with the affairs of their lost Arabia beyond watching with
interest what goes on there.
64. This is the most convenient place in which to deal with a small number
of questions which are of major political interest in connexion with the position
between His Majesty’s Government and Ibn Saud, although two of them assumed
no acute form in 1931, while the interest attaching to the third was, from the