IOR/L/PS/10/1242

The file concerns the supply of arms and ammunition to Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd], King of Hejaz [al-Ḥijāz] and Nejd, by the Government of India in 1929, to enable him to suppress potential trouble with the Ajman tribe. The papers go on to record the attempts of the British Government to obtain payment for the arms from the Government of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia), and discussions between British Government departments about how to allocate the cost of the debt.

In addition to India Office correspondence and memoranda, the file includes correspondence from: the British Agent and Consul, Jeddah; HM Chargé d’Affaires, Jeddah (Andrew Spencer Calvert); HM Minister, Jeddah (Sir Andrew Ryan); the Colonial Office; the Foreign Office; the Government of India; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia).

The papers cover: Ibn Saud's request for the use of a British troopship to transport one thousand men to Uqair [Al-ʻUqayr], and the supply of three thousand rifles and one thousand boxes of ammunition for possible use against the Ajman (also referred to as Akhwan [Ikhwan]), May 1929; the agreement of the Government of India to supply 2700 rifles and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition (in June 1929) at a cost of four lakhs [400,000],19,163 rupees, May-August 1929; a suggestion by the Foreign Office that the British Government should give the arms to Ibn Saud at a reduced figure, or free of charge, as a gesture of goodwill (folio 437); the failure of the Government of Hejaz and Nejd to pay for the arms, requests by them to postpone payment, and the reorganisation of the state's finances, 1929-32; acceptance of HM Treasury proposals that HM Government should accept liability for two thirds of the debt, with only one third being borne by the Government of India, March 1933; the Saudi Arabian Government offer to pay 5% interest on the debt, March 1933; the financial situation in Saudi Arabia, October 1933; negotiations over the debt between British officials and the Saudi Government, 1933-34; the risk of prejudicing Anglo-Saudi relations by pressing for a resolution of the debt, January 1934 (folio 160); the effect on negotiations over Saudi debts of the run-up to, and outbreak of, the Saudi-Yemen War, 1934; Saudi debts to Polish arms manufacturers, 1934; the Government of India again press for repayment of the debt, May 1935; the payment by the Saudi Arabian Government of 10% of the 1929 debt, 1935; the refusal of the Government of India, supported by the Viceroy, of a Foreign Office proposal to write off the remainder of the debt, unless the balance due to them was paid by HM Government, 1937; and agreement between the Foreign Office and the Government of India that the debt should be allowed to stand indefinitely, 1938.

The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.