مجموعة ١/١٧ "العلاقات بين العراق ونجد: اتفاقية حسن الجوار وتسليم المجرمين؛ معاهدة الصداقة، ١٩٣٦" [و‎‎٢‎٨‎٥] (٨٥٧/٥٦٩)

13. Nuri Pasha said that he had been anxious to explain to the King his
reasons for sending Taha Pasha El Hashimi and Muwaffaq Bey to Sana and to
assure himself that it would not indispose Ibn Sand if they went on straight from
here. To me he explained that Taha Pasha had been employed as Chief of Staff,
1 did not gather when or by what Government, in the Yemen and knew the Imam
well. He was therefore peculairly qualified to explore a situation of which very
little was known. He believed that His Majesty’s Government themselves had
only scanty information. Taha Pasha and his colleagues were unable to catch a
south-bound steamer leaving here, on the 8th April and stayed behind in Mecca
when Nuri Pasha came here.
14. The Pasha mentioned one matter not recorded in my telegrams, namely,
that he had reconciled Ibn Saud to Dr. Abdullah Damluji, and had received a
friendly message from His Majesty to deliver to that gentleman.
15. Nuri Pasha left Jedda on the 9th August by the Khedivial steamer
which had brought him and which delayed its return to Suez twenty-four hours
to give him more time. He was seen off by much the same local notables as had
received him, except that I think Sheikh Yusuf Yasin went on board. The
Turkish and Persian representatives, Mr. Wikeley and I also went to the quay.
16. Altogether the mission has been a greater success than I had dared to
anticipate. Both sides have shown qualities of statesmanship. They will
doubtless quarrel a great deal in the future, but the present agreement with
them marks a notable advance along the road which His Majesty’s Government
wish to see the Arab States follow in their relations with each other. If Nuri
Pasha has a fault it is, perhaps, that he exaggerates his personal success with
people like the King and Sheikh Yusuf Yasin He is, I fancy, too much of a
European in externals and too little of a practising Moslem to appeal to them
really. On the other hand, he seems to have been both businesslike and con
ciliatory, and his general qualities could not fail both to impress and to attract
others, however different their outlook. He seems to have a gift for remembering
people. Changes of hair and headdress make recognition difficult in the Near
East of to-day, but it was delightful to see the Prime Minister of Iraq twice
chuck the Hejazi Director-General of Military Organisation under the chin when
the former discovered an old colleague in the latter; and the Pasha and the
Turkish Charge d’Affaires were with difficulty parted at 1 a.m. after they had
located a common past.
17. I am sending copies of this despatch to His Majesty’s High
Commissioners for Iraq and Transjordan.
I have, &c.
ANDREW RYAN.