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File 3666/1925 'ARABIA: PRINTED CORRESPONDENCE 1924-28' [115v] (241/792)
The record is made up of 1 volume (388 folios). It was created in 27 Dec 1924-28 Oct 1929. It was written in English and French. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
105
2. Ibn Saud, by a regular treaty with Sayed Hassan el Tdrisi, has thus estab
lished his suzerainty over Asir. The internal government of the province is left
in the hands of Sayed Hassan ; but war and peace, foreign policy and defence from
external aggression, even the faculty of granting commercial concessions, pass into
the hands of Ibn Saud. The convention is dated the 14th of Rabi Akhar, 1345,
and lest this date should puzzle London and Rome, the corresponding date October
21st is added. In spite of appearances, the treaty must have been signed at
different times, for on October 21st last the signatories were several hundred miles
apart. The comings and goings of Sheikh Murgani el Idrisi between Jizan and
Jeddah had no doubt much to do with it. That servant of Islam, Ahmed Sherif
el Senussi, gives the document, it will be noticed, his pontifical blessing. The
lightheartedness reflected from Jizan in last month's report is now explained.
3. The Agreement is very possibly a retort to the notorious fact that Italy
is supplying arms and war-material to the Imam Yahya, and the signature of the
Grand Senussi, who can be no friend to Italian expansion, lends support to the
thesis. Nevertheless, Ibn Saud's claim to suzerainty over the Asir is not a new
conception. In 1920 Ibn Saud played an obscurer part on the Arabian stage than
he does at present : But, starting from the occupation of Ebha by his men in
that year, an occupation which after a temporary reverse was renewed in 1922,
there have been various indications of an intimacy of relations between Ibn Saud
and Asir, although such relations were not perhaps mutually sought in the same
degree. In more recent years the King's interferences in Asir affairs have been
considerable. In June, 1925, he openly wrote to this
Agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
stating that he had
been asked not only by the leading chiefs in Asir but also by the Idrisi himself,
(at that time the present Sayed Hassan), to take over the reins of government.
He added that, for reasons of security on his southern frontier and in order to pre
serve the balance of power in Asir and Yemen, he had instructed his commanding
officer in Asir, i.e., in the northern region of Asir already under his sway, to occupy
and to restore to peace and order, as the Idrisi had requested, the area which the
latter might indicate. The present treaty, to be known as the " Mecca Agreement,"'
thus rounds off an ambition of many years’ standing. Unprotected Asir was
bound to fall either to Ibn Saud or to the Yemen.
4. The fact that the Idrisi has definitely chosen Ibn Saud rather than the
Imam Yahya as his protector shows that Ibn Saud’s star is still in the ascendant.
It is further interesting to note that the Idrisi, a chieftain whose temporal power,
like that of the Senussi himself, has in part ecclesiastical origin, has not feared to
accept the overlords h’p of the Wahabi leader. For him, obviously, Ibn Saud
is before anything else, King of the Hejaz and Sultan of Nejd.
5. If Ibn Saud makes good his now legal claim to suzerainty over Asir, and
succeeds in due course in getting his claim recognised by other Powers concerned,
the new Agreement is a distinct set-back to the spread northward of Italian
influence in Arabia. A last point is worthy of notice. The treaty defines only in
vague terms what is the territory of Asir (a state whose boundaries in the last
ten years have shown remarkable elasticity), now placed under the guidance of
Ibn Saud. It has not been possible so far to obtain further precisions, the former
treaty of 1339, (1920), with Sayed Mohammed el Idrisi not having been published.
In any case, that treaty of 1339 is said not to define the Asir-Yemen marches.
The present Agreement does cover, however, the frontiers " which were, at that
date, subject to the Idrisis, i.e., in 1339 (1920). In 1920, if I am not mistaken,
the Idrisi held Hodeida, now in the hands of the Imam Yahya.
6. The Mecca Agreement is therefore in a sense a challenge to the Imam Yahya,
and on the face of things would make it appear inevitable that a collision will
sooner or later occur between Ibn Saud and the principal surviving rival, apart
from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, to his sovereignty in the Arabian peninsula.
But on the other hand it is fairly certain that at the present juncture Ibn Saud
has no desire to attack the Imam, and that it would be a distinct departure from
his usual wise and cautious procedure to do so. Further, there may be between
these two rulers some such pact of partition a suggestion of which was reported
by 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.
at Aden in paragraph 1 of his News Letter* No. 2, dated
28th February 1925. According to that report, the Imam recognises Ibn Saud s
♦File No. 179-N.
About this item
- Content
This volume mainly relates to British policy in Arabia, and specifically concerns British relations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd, also referred to in the correspondence as Bin Saud]. The papers cover the Hejaz-Nejd War of 1924-25 and political affairs in Ibn Saud's Kingdom of Hejaz and Sultanate of Nejd [Najd] (or the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, as it became in 1927).
The volume mainly consists of compiled sections of printed correspondence, with each section closing with a report from the British Agent and Consul at Jeddah. The most prominently featured correspondents are as follows: the British Agent and Consul, Jeddah; the Secretary of State for India; the Secretary of State for the Colonies; 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. , Aden; the High Commissioner, Egypt; the High Commissioner, Iraq; the High Commissioner, Palestine; officials of the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, 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 Government of India's Foreign and Political Department. Also featured as correspondents are Ibn Saud, King Ali [‘Alī bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī], and British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
Matters covered in the correspondence include the following:
- Diplomatic relations between Ibn Saud and Britain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Persia [Iran]
- Information on developments in the Hejaz-Nejd War of 1924-25, mainly in the form of telegrams and letters from the British Agent and Consul at Jeddah, and British policy regarding the conflict
- British policy in relation to the fate of the ex-King Hussein [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī]
- Reports of Wahabi forces having damaged or destroyed holy sites in Mecca and Medina
- The efforts of King Ali [‘Alī bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī] to raise money in Jeddah
- Details of the Hadda Agreement and the Bahra Agreement, concluded between Sir Gilbert Clayton and Ibn Saud in late 1925
- Details of King Ali's surrender and abdication on 19 December 1925, and arrangements for his passage out of Jeddah
- Britain's recognition of Ibn Saud as King of the Hejaz in February 1926
- British concerns regarding the spread of anti-British opinion in the Hejaz
- Public outrage in the wider Muslim world regarding the desecration of holy sites by the Wahabis, and the British Government's refusal to become involved, owing to its stated policy of non-intervention in Muslim religious affairs
- British efforts to ensure the Government of Hejaz's participation in the International Sanitary Convention of 1926
- Arrangements for a private visit to London by Ibn Saud's son Faisal [Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd] in September 1926
- British concerns regarding Ibn Saud's diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR]
- A change to Ibn Saud's title in 1927, from 'King of Hejaz and Sultan of Nejd' to 'King of Hejaz and Nejd'
- The conclusion of the Treaty of Jeddah in June 1927
- Relations between Ibn Saud and the Imam of Yemen [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn], and the former's suspicions that the Italian Government has been supplying the Imam with arms
- Profiles of prominent figures in the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd
- The number of pilgrims arriving each year for Hajj
- Tense relations between Ibn Saud and the Iraqi Government, particularly concerning the Uqair Protocol.
Also included with the correspondence are the following: minutes of an interdepartmental conference held at the Colonial Office on 20 May 1926, to discuss matters arising out of Clayton's Mission to Ibn Saud (ff 178-179); a Colonial Office memorandum entitled 'British Interests in Arabia', dated 8 December 1926 (ff 111-113).
The volume includes a small amount of correspondence written in French.
The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (f 1).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (388 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 (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 388; 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. A previous foliation sequence between ff 118-388, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.
Pagination: each of the various sections of printed correspondence has its own printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/1155
- Title
- File 3666/1925 'ARABIA: PRINTED CORRESPONDENCE 1924-28'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:ii-v, 1r:2v, 4r, 5v:14r, 15r, 16v:18r, 20v:25v, 26v:45v, 47r:47v, 49r:51v, 54r:55v, 56v:59r, 61r:65v, 67r:70r, 71v:88v, 89v:95v, 96v:103v, 105v:106v, 107v:108r, 110v:113v, 115r:116v, 118r, 119r:120r, 121r:122v, 123v:128r, 130r:136v, 138r, 140r:143r, 145v, 146v:147v, 149r, 150v:153v, 155r:156r, 157r, 158v:161r, 162v:167v, 169v:173r, 174v, 177r:187v, 189r:189v, 192r:193r, 195v, 197v:203r, 204v:213r, 215v:216v, 218r, 219v:220v, 221v, 222v:223v, 225r:227r, 228v:229r, 231r:232r, 233r, 234r:240r, 243r:260r, 261v:267r, 269r:269v, 271v:274r, 276v:280r, 282v:285v, 288r:289r, 290v:291v, 294r, 295v:296r, 299r:300r, 302r:304r, 305r, 306v, 308v:317r, 318v:319r, 320r:321r, 323r:325v, 327v:338r, 339v:359r, 360v:367r, 368v:369v, 371r, 372v:373r, 374v, 375v:376v, 378v, 380r:384v, 387r:388v, iii-r:iv-v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence