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Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎7v] (15/802)

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The record is made up of 1 file (399 folios). It was created in 1 Jul 1931-31 Mar 1938. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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6
believe that it would “ go beyond what (the Saudi) Government believe to be within
their territories,” and assumed that the companies operating in the Arab Amirates
concerned would not cross the line as defined by the Saudi Arabian Government.
The words quoted in inverted commas cover the disputed territory as well as what
His Majesty’s Government are prepared to regard as Saudi territory; they do not
agree with the sense of the paragraph as a whole, and they are at variance witb x
what Fuad Bey had said. His Majesty’s Minister suggested to Fuad Bey that
the ambiguous words should be corrected, but instead of adopting that simple way
out of the difficulty Fuad Bey wrote a letter, in which he said that provided that
the Arab Governments concerned would agree to abstention from the disputed area
until an agreement should be arrived at, the Saudi Government were prepared
to inform the C.A.S.O.C. of the necessity not to encroach on that area. This, in
effect, gives an ultimatum to His Majesty’s Government. At the end of the month
the attempt was still being made to return to the more seemly wording of the note
of the 19th December, except for the amendment of the words quoted above which
are obviously incorrect. Meanwhile, His Majesty’s Minister is still for a policy
of delay. The Jedda manager of C.A.S.O.C. has confirmed Fuad Bey’s statement
about the instructions given to the company by the Saudi Government as to the
territory in dispute.
501. It appears certain that Sheikh Yusuf Yasin tried to read some
encouragement into a colourless statement about the Hejaz Railway (para
graph 451) which was made to him by Jamil Mardam, President of the Council
in Syria. The President appears to have said that while he was in favour in
principle of the reopening of the line if it could be repaired, it had always been
considered at Damascus that the Hejaz Railway was State property, and that each
successor State inherited that portion of the line situated in its territory, and was
responsible for any expenses relating to that portion. He even seems to have said
that the Syrian Government had no intention of taking the initiative in
embarking on negotiations on so delicate a question. His Majesty’s Government,
after consulting the French Government, informed the Saudi Minister in London
that they would not object if Ibn Saud thought a statement desirable. The
Minister stated subsequently that the King had decided against the issue of a
statement, but had asked for an early reply to the note of the 28th January, 1936.
502. This note of January 1936 about the Hejaz Railway does not appear
to have been mentioned in the Jedda Report at the time. It was addressed to the
British and French Governments, through their representatives in Jedda. It
summarised the work of the Haifa Conference of October 1935 (paragraph 368
of 1935), and noted with regret the decision on item 3 on the agenda :—
“ While recording the proposal of Fuad Bey Hamza to the effect that
the reconstruction of the damaged sections should be effected at the expense
of the line as a whole, the conference regretted that it had not been able to
reach an agreed resolution on this important question. In these circum
stances, the conference could only commend the matter to the consideration of
the Governments concerned.”
It drew some comfort from a statement by the representative of the Syrian section,
who was described as saying that contribution by this section to expenditure on
other sections had been envisaged by the Lausanne (Bompard) Declaration, though
so far the Syrian section had, in fact, been working at a loss. Finally, the note
declared that in the opinion of the Saudi Government the only possible solution
was that the line should be considered as one and should bear as a whole the
expenses to be incurred on the damaged sections south of Maan. The note invited
the two Governments to accept this principle as a preliminary to a discussion
regarding the method of raising the money for repairs.
503. His Majesty’s Government have under consideration the Saudi note
of January 1936, but they consider that it will hardly be possible to give an early
reply. Some of the complications of the subject were brought out a year ago
when the Foreign Office instructed His Majesty’s Minister to give his views on
a suggestion which had been made that His Majesty’s Government might perhaps
l>e justified on political grounds in considering the possibility of bearing them
selves the cost of repairing the Saudi section of the Hejaz Railway. The views

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Content

This file consists almost entirely of copies (forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India) of printed reports sent either by the His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard), or, in the Minister's absence, by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, succeeded by Albert Spencer Calvert), to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Most of the reports cover a two-month period and are prefaced by a table of contents. The reports discuss a number of matters relating to the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia), including internal affairs, frontier questions, foreign relations, the Hajj, and slavery.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (399 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 400; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The leather cover wraps around the documents; the back of the cover has not been foliated.

A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎7v] (15/802), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2073, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100037351181.0x000011> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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