مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎٥‎٥] (٥٤٠/٣١١)

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descendants of theirs still live in Saudi Arabia. Ihe nomad poition ave oiig
had their being in what is now Transjordan, but they exercise grazing ug s
over the border, and some of them are still entitled to a shaie in the pio uce
of date gardens at Kaf. For some time the Governor of the latter place had
been putting pressure on them by refusing to recognise their rights and o 101
methods, to accept Saudi nationality and in the course of the negotiations a
Jedda the Saudi delegates claimed the whole tribe as owing allegiance to 1 >n
Saud. As already stated, the question was settled at Jerusalem m July m a
manner which, on the whole, gave satisfaction to Transjordan, but there was
reason to believe that later in the year the Governor of Kaf, a knavish fellow at
the best, was still up to his tricks.
31. The amount of raiding during the year would appear to have been
negligible, judging by the records in the Legation of protests by the two Govern
ments. No specific raids in the true sense of the word were alleged against the
Transjordan tribes. The Saudi Government tried to represent two incidents in
the police work of the Arab Legion as acts of brigandage and in December they
stated, without giving adequate details, that their subjects had been the victims
of several robberies from the 7th August to the 20th October. One raid by Beni
Atiya occurred in January, but Captain Glubb rounded up the raiders before they
could leave Transjordan. Members of the same tribe were responsible for a
series of small raids on Transjordan tribesmen in the second half of the year.
The Saudi authorities gave some, though not complete, satisfaction in respect
of these. On the whole, the situation in 1933 justified Captain Glubb’s boast
that, while so many political storms have raged about it, the Saudi-Transjordan
frontier has become the healthiest in all Northern Arabia.
32. Older raids continued to be the subject of desultory correspondence.
At the beginning of the year a further meeting was projected between Captain
Glubb and Sheikh Abdul Aziz-bin-Zeyd, but the latter evaded it in a manner
which exposed him to an accusation of discourtesy. In the event the treaty
negotiations superseded, for practical purposes, all previous arrangements for
dealing with claims, and the eventual settlement provided for a mutual cancella
tion of all claims in respect of raids prior to the signature of the treaty. The
only important relic of the past now is the claim of His Majesty’s Government
in the United Kingdom for the still unpaid share of the Saudi Government in the
expenses of the MacDonnell enquiry of 1930.
Lie of the Frontier.
33. The question of the “ graticule ” (see paragraph 32 of the report for
1932) has continued to engage the anxious attention of Departments in London,
but did not advance during 1933 to any point requiring action by the Legation.
It was decided at an interdepartmental meeting at the Colonial Office on the
6th October, 1933, that no progress could be made without more precise
geographical information and that an unostentatious survey should be made in
the first instance of the frontier between Transjordan and the Hejaz. It was
not considered advisable to undertake a similar survey of the portion of the
frontier between Transjordan and Nejd, where the attention of the Saudi
Government would almost certainly be excited.
34. Early in the year the Saudi Government gave a very lame reply to
representations regarding the incidents on the last-named portion of the frontier
which were mentioned at the end of paragraph 32 of the report for 1932. A
rather more serious situation arose in August 1933 owing to the establishment
of a Saudi post at Hazim, an important water point, considered by the British
and Transjordan authorities to be unquestionably on the Transjordan side of the
frontier. This led to diplomatic correspondence, in the course of which the
Saudi Government maintained that Hazim was actually on the frontier. The
question had not been settled by the end of the year, but the situation on the
spot had been eased in the interval by the withdrawal of the Saudi post to a
position some 3^ miles from the wells.
Status of Aqaba and Maan.
35. Although this question remained in abeyance during the year, there
were definite signs of an itch on the part of the Saudi Government to reopen it