Coll 6/65 'Relations between Saudi-Arabia and the Yemen.' [‎112r] (223/917)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
CONFIDENTIAL
[E 3761/79/251 No. 1.
Sir A. Ryan to Sir John Simon.—(Received June 7.)
(No. 145.) ,,
gj r Jedda, May 14, 1934.
WITH reference to paragraph 9 of my despatch No . 133 o f the 28th April,
I have the honour to enclose herewith one copy of the SaudfGreen Book, v inch
was published in its complete form on the 29th April. It runs, as you will see,
to over 200 pages of close print, and I cannot hope to forward a translation,
enclose a summary of the contents of the book. The plan of the principal chapters
is to provide a certain amount of explanation and comment in addition to the
numbered documents which form the major portion. Numerous as these documents
are they certainly do not contain anything like all the correspondence which has
passed since 1927. I will give you one instance which is of present importance.
On the 8 th May Fuad first spoke to me of the possibility of peace on the basis
of compliance by the Imam with Ibn Sand’s demands as formula.ted at the outset
of the present hostilities, subject to certain “guarantees, which seemed to be
of a formidable character, as they were to include a rectification of frontiers and
an indemnity. I suggested, in a general way, to Fuad Bey that, as the King
had persistently repeated his demands in their original form, it might be some
what difficult to recede from the position that compliance with them was the
only condition of peace. Fuad Bey gently reminded me that a treaty of friend
ship had also to be concluded and said that any question of “guarantees " would
fall to be dealt with in this. Then he added that a telegram, not published in
the Green Book, had been addressed to the Imam warning him of the risks he
might run, if actual hostilities became necessary.
2. The Green Book nevertheless contains texts of great interest. Perhaps
the most interesting of all is the text of the first treaty between Ibn Saud and
the Idrisi, the exact nature of which has long been a subject of speculation. I
enclose a rough translation of this agreement, but as I cannot have it checked
at present, I would ask that it should not be used for purposes of publication until
a more accurate translation can be made. You will observe that it bears the date
the 16th Dhu’l Hijja, 1338 (the 31st August. 1920), whereas it is referred to in
the second Saudi-Idrisi Treaty of the 21st October, 1926. as an agreement of the
10th Safar, 1339 (the 24th October, 1920). I have ascertained from Fuad Bey
that the date of signature is correctly stated in the Green Book and that the latter
date is that of a letter from Ibn Saud approving of it. This gave the agreement
final validity, the Idrisi himself having signed the original.
3. The title ‘ ‘ Imam ” has become so closely associated in European language
with the Imam Yahya that it may not be out of place to remind you that it is
borne equally by Ibn Saud as Imam of the Wahhabis and by the Idrisi as the
religious head of his own adherents. It has often, in the past, been applied to
them tout court, with results that are nowadays somewhat confusing.
4 . It will be seen from the enclosed translation that the first Saudi-Idrisi
Treaty did not in any precise sense establish frontiers. What it did was to take
account of the ancestral claims of Ibn Saud, founded on the early expansion of
Wahhabi and the more recent expansion of the Idrisi, whose pretensions, if not
his actual occupation, extended to areas far greater than his dominion in the
Tihama of Asir. The effect of the agreement was to partition the total area
which both might claim, but much more with reference to tribes and their ranges
than to geographical features. I need not pursue the analysis further at present.
I would point out, however, that, unless a treaty in modern form between Ibn
Saud and the Imam Yahya relegates all past arrangements to limbo, the agreement
of 1920 may still have importance in connexion with the complicated question of
Ibn Sand’s titles.
5 . Next in interest is the account given of the negotiations between Ibn Saud
and the Imam Yahya in 1927-28 and the settlement of the Arwa question in 1931.
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