"ملفات 61/12 و 61/16 (D 80) معاهدة بين بان سعود والحكومة البريطانية" [و‎‎١‎٢‎١] (٤٠٨/٢٤٨)

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4
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
EASTERN ( A rabia ) . [January 26, 1927. J
CO-N 'FI
Section 1.
E 477/119/91]
No. 1.
( oiibiil »S. U. Jot dan and Mr. G. A ntonius to Sir Austen Chamherlain.
Sir,
„, r , . . . 1 jondon, January 2$, W21.
V\ XL. nave l lie honour to submit this report on the progress of the negotiations
which we w6ie appointed to conduct with His Majesty the King of the Hejaz and
Sultan of Aejd. As will be seen, these negotiations, far from reaching finality, led
to a situation in which we felt it our duty to propose to Ibn Sa ud that our conver-
sations be temporarily suspended, pending reference to His Majesty s Government.
I or although agreement had been reached on the principles underlying the treaty
w hich it was our task to conclude, yet our discussions had revealed some considerable
divergence on specific points between the view's of the King of the Hejaz and the
policy laid down by liis Majesty s (jovernment. We have endeavoured in the present
report to show the measure of that divergence by indicating, as briefly as is com
patible with a clear exposition of the principles involved, the degree of agreement or
of difference which was reached on each of the questions discussed.
2. We left Jedda on the morning of Monday, the 23rd November, 1926. in a
convoy of motor-cars provided by the King. We spent the first night of the journey
at Rabegh and the second at Bir Darwish, a caravan halting-place on the traditional
pilgrim-route from Yambo to Medina. At midday on the 24th we. reached the camp
which had been prepared for us at Hamra Namleh, an uninhabited locality on the
banks of the historic Wadi al-'Aqiq, some 14 miles to the south-west of Medina.
There we remained until Wednesday, the 15th December, when we started back for
Jedda, arriving there late on the following night. Negotiations w r ere opened on the
day of our arrival in the camp, and during the three weeks of our stay we held
thirteen formal meetings with the King. A still larger number of meetings were held
with Dr. Abdullah Damluji and Shaikh Yusuf Yasin. who had been chosen by the
King as his immediate assistants for the purposes of the negotiations.
3. Alongside w r ith these conversations there took place a reciprocal exchange
of specific proposals in the form of written drafts, of which we submit copies or
translations herewith (Annexes 1 to 6),* and which may be scheduled in chrono
logical order as follows :—
(«.) Hejaz first Draft Treaty (with Protocol relating to the Hejaz Railway),
presented on the 25th November (Annex 1).*
(h.) Our first Draft Treaty, with Protocol relating to the Hejaz-Transjordan
frontier (as enclosed in Foreign Office despatch No. 126 of the 3rd
November), presented on the 26th November (Annex 2). #
{c.) Hejaz second Draft Treaty, presented on the 27th November
(Annex 3).*
{d.) Our second Draft Treaty (with Protocol relating to the Hejaz-Trans
jordan frontier), presented on the 4th December (Annex 4).*
{e.) Hejaz third Draft Treaty, presented on the 4th December (Annex 5).
(/.) Draft undertaking relating to the Hejaz-Transjordan frontier and to His
Britannic Majesty's special position in mandated territories, presented
by Ibn Sa'ud on the 7th December (Annex 6).
It should be noted that the above communications were all presented unsigned.
4. We propose in this report to separate the questions which we had occasion
to discuss with the King of the Hejaz into two categories :—
(«.) Points proposed by His Majesty's Government in the Draft Treaty and
Protocol issued under cover of Foreign Office despatch No. 126 of the
3rd November, 1926.
{h.) Points proposed by the King of the Hejaz for inclusion in the treaty.
With regard to (a), the Draft Treaty w 7 hich consists of a Preamble and eight
articles, and the Protocol which is a separate one-clause instrument are both dealt
with, point by point, in paragraphs 5 to 14 below; while the questions under (6),
which are four in number, are dealt with in paragraphs 15 to 18.
The third section of our report, paragraphs 19 to 23, w T ill deal with our
conclusions and general obseryations.
3799 [15690]
Annexes 1 to 4 not [printed.
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