Coll 17/1 'Iraq-Nejd Relations: Bon Voisinage Agreement and Extradition; Treaty of Friendship, 1936' [‎284r] (567/857)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOYBRNMEN^’
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EASTERN (Arabia).
April 29
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CONFIDENTIAL.
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No. 1.
Sir A. Ryan to Mr. A. Henderson.—(Received April 29.)
(No. 140.)
feir, y~ Jedda, April 13, 1931.
WITH reference to my telegram No. 81 of the 9th instant, I have the honour
to submit a fuller account of the proceedings during the visit of the Prime
Minister for Iraq to this country. Although it may be some little time before I
can send this despatch, I think it will conduce to clarity if I embody in it all
that I know of what passed while Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was actually here and reserve for
a further report anything that I may hear from the other side in due course.
2. Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. arrived in Jedda by Khedivial steamer from Suez on the
morning of Easter Sunday, the 5th April, accompanied by three other delegates,
namely, Taha Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. El Hasbimi, Muwaffaq Bey El Alousi and x\hmed Bey
Manafisi. Considering it appropriate in the circumstances to show special
courtesy, although the mission were the guests of the Hejazi Government, I sent
Mr. Wikeley to present compliments to Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. on board and myself met him
on the quay.
3. From what the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. told Mr. Wikeley, it appeared that he expected to
find Ibn Saud in Jedda. As a matter of fact, not only the King but our nominal
Minister for Foreign Affairs sat tight in Mecca. Minor officials greeted Nuri
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. on board, and Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, with the Governor of Jedda and
others, received him on the quay. A respectable guard was turned out and there
were plenty of cars, but the reception otherwise was, perhaps, hardly adequate
to the principal visitor’s rank, according to oriental ideas.
4 I had understood that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. would be accommodated at the villa
outside Jedda usually assigned to official European visitors of high rank, and had
supposed that the main negotiations would take place in Jedda. It was, in fact,
the intention that the mission should be put up at Kandara, at any rate for the
first night, and that Yusuf Yasin should give a dinner, to which I was to be
bidden. This plan was upset, apparently by Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. himself, and the mission
went on to Mecca in the afternoon. I at first supposed that this might be due to
an objection on the Pasha’s part to being put off with Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, but
I cannot affirm this now. The Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. had expected to arrive on the 4th April and
to leave on the 11th. The Khedivial time table did not allow of his getting here
before the 5th and necessitated his leaving on the 8th or 9th. Expedition was
therefore essential, and it was certainly a more practical plan, as Ibn Saud elected
to remain in Mecca, to mobilise everybody concerned there as soon as possible.
5. The same need for haste probably accounted for the fact that the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
did not call on me after his arrival, although he sent a card. Nothing in our
subsequent intercourse could justify me in supposing that he wished to ignore me
or come the Premier over a British representative of inferior rank. When I met
him he hailed me as an old friend, for he had come to see me in 1913 or 1914
when he was a young officer in Constantinople for some political purpose. I
gathered afterwards that it had to do with the events which led to the arrest by
the Turkish Government of the well-known El Masri and the intervention of the
British Embassy to prevent his being put to death.
6. So the mission and Sheikh Yusuf Yasin hurried off to Mecca on the
afternoon of the 5th April. I heard nothing further until the 7th, when the
telephone wires buzzed with enquiries about steamers to take Taha Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. and
Muwaffaq Bey to Hodeidah and Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. himself to Suez. I received the same
day a reply to a suggestion I had broached just after the mission arrived that
they should dine at the Legation any night that would fit in with the official
programme. I had not pursued this further after the mission’s departure for
Mecca, but I received a spontaneous intimation on the 7th that they and Yusuf
Yasin would dine with us next evening, but that the Emir Feisal could not leave
Mecca. There was still no news of the progress of the negotiations.
[88 ff— 3 ]