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Coll 6/7(2) 'The Yemen: Relations between H.M.G. and the Yemen.' [‎49r] (108/732)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (362 folios). It was created in 16 Jun 1932-21 Sep 1933. 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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r->.
press these points, which were not primarily 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.
points, hut they were clearly material to any decision the
Committee might take.
COLONEL REILLY feared that a situation might arise in
which, the negotiations having keen broken off, His Majesty’s
Government might nevertheless refuse to authorise the issue of
an ultimatum, to he followed, if necessary, hy coercive action.
We should then he faced with a deadlock in which the present
unsatisfactory situation would continue to deteriorate without
the prospect of a solution either hy negotiations or by force.
This impasse might continue for several years, and would he
very damaging to us politically. Rather than risk such a
possibility he would prefer to continue negotiations in spite
of the Imam’s obstinacy. Such an alternative was not, in his
view, quite a hopeless one. With one exception the Imam’s
modifications of our ’’final” terms did not appear to him to be
necessarily or wholly unacceptable. The exception was the
secret annexe, which was quite out of the question. Apart
from this, the Imam's draft treaty did not strike him as
being a had document. It was true that he rejected all words
implying a recognition of the Protectorate, hut if he removes
the trade restrictions and adjusts the boundaries as desired
hy His Majesty’s Government, as he promised to do at the end
of his letter, we shall have gained substantial advantages and
an acknowledgment of the Protectorate in fact though not in
name. On a strict construction of the letter sent to the Imam
on the 11th April, it was not, he considered, essential that th
trade restrictions should he raised before our eavoy, if aes
patched, proceeded to Sanaa, hut they must oe raised before
the treaty was actually concluued.
He thought that if the Acting Resident’s recommendations
for the breaking off of a treaty, to be followed by an ultima
tum, were accepted in their entirety - well and good; and he
was in favour of going forward on these lines. Bat if there,
was to he any doubt or delay about the ultimatum and the

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Content

This volume concerns relations between the British Government and Imam Yehia bin Muhammad Hamid Uddin [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn, Imam of Yemen]. It documents (from a British perspective) the progress of treaty negotiations between Britain and Yemen. Much of the correspondence discusses the terms of the proposed treaty between Britain and Yemen, including a contested third article from a draft treaty proposed by the Imam, which relates both to the southern frontier of Yemen and to the Imam's claim to a number of unspecified islands situated in the Red Sea (referred to as 'the Islands of Yemen' in the Imam's draft treaty).

Other items of discussion related to the proposed treaty include:

  • Whether India should be a separate signatory of the proposed treaty.
  • Whether the Imam is likely to consent to the establishment of special tribunals for the practice of a privileged code of law for foreign nationals in Yemen.
  • The British precondition that, prior to the treaty being signed, the Imam must remove all restrictions on overland trade between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate, as well as surrender the territories and subjects of those chiefs who are in treaty relations with the British.
  • The possibility of the appointment of a permanent British representative at San'a.

The volume's main correspondents are the following: 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. and Commander-in-Chief (later referred to as the Chief Commissioner) at Aden (Bernard Rawdon Reilly and his Acting Resident, Reginald Stuart Champion), the Imam of Yemen, the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Philip Cunliffe-Lister), and officials of the 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. , the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, and the War Office respectively.

In addition to correspondence, the volume also includes the following:

  • Copies of minutes from meetings of the Imperial Defence Committee's Standing Official Sub-Committee for questions concerning the Middle East, which discuss the proposed treaty with Yemen.
  • A copy of a report of an eighteen-day British medical mission (comprised of two doctors, two nurses, and Lieutenant-Colonel Morice Challoner Lake) to Taiz [Ta‘izz] in late 1931 and early 1932, which was undertaken for the purpose of treating the daughter-in-law of Seyyid 'Ali of Taiz, son-in-law of the Imam.
  • A copy of a report of Lake's subsequent visit to San'a in January 1932, which recounts in detail his conversations with the Imam.
  • Copies of both a draft treaty and a 'retabulated' draft treaty, drafted by the British in response to the Imam's initial draft treaty.
  • Copies of political intelligence summaries from the Aden Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. .

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

Extent and format
1 volume (362 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 for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 358; 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 front and back covers, along with the two leading and two ending flyleaves have not been foliated. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 315-358; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 6/7(2) 'The Yemen: Relations between H.M.G. and the Yemen.' [‎49r] (108/732), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2069, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049026062.0x00006d> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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