IOR/L/PS/12/1499

The volume contains papers regarding Government policy in the Aden Hadhramaut [Hadramawt], and related topics. The file consists of extensive correspondence, reports and minutes regarding:

• a proposal by the Aden Chief Commissioner (later Governor) that a more 'forward' policy should be adopted in the Hadhramaut, based around engagement with the Qu'ayti [Al Qu'ayṭī] Sultan of Shehr and Mukalla, and the Kathiri Sultan. Related topics include: the construction of roads; the provision of a British Political Officer for the Eastern Aden Protectorate; the provision of improvement loans; attempts to encourage a more conciliatory attitude towards the Kathiri Sultan from the Qu'ayti Sultan; the supervision, equipment and training of tribal forces; the extension of the Tribal Guards System to the Kathiris; and treaty negotiations;
• the negotiation of a treaty with Ṣāliḥ bin Ghālib Al Qu'ayṭī, the Sultan of Shehr and Mukalla, including discussion of the issue of succession and the nomination of his son, 'Awad ibn Salih Al Qu'ayṭī, as his successor. The file also contains correspondence with and regarding Muhammad bin 'Umar Al Qu'ayṭī, son of the Sultan 'Umar ibn 'Awad (d 1936), including correspondence with the Government of the Nizam of Hyderabad regarding the confiscation of Muhammad bin 'Umar's passport, and steps taken to prevent his return to Mukalla;
• Anglo-Italian relations in the Middle East, including: anti-British propaganda published in newspapers in Italy and Yemen; Italian complaints that the British policy in the Hadhramaut violated the terms of the Anglo-Italian Rome Agreement (1927); and Italo-Yemeni relations;
• Anglo-Yemeni relations, including: Yemeni complaints regarding British policy in the Hadhramaut; the boundaries of Yemen and the Aden Protectorate, with reference to the Anglo-Turkish Agreement (1914), the Treaty of San'a (1934), and the British treaties with Aden Protectorate tribes; British attempts to negotiate a treaty with the Shabwa tribes [Shabwah]; Yemeni claims to Shabwa; and Yemeni troop movements in Shabwa;
• the movement and actions of Harry St John Philby, including his visit to Shabwa in 1936, his articles on British policy in Umm-al-Qura and the Daily Herald, and the McMahon-Hussein correspondence; plus concern over Saudi policy regarding the Hadhramaut.

The file contains extensive minutes and circulars on the above topics from the Committee of Imperial Defence Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, at folios 564-587, 525-537, 148-307, 78-97, and 5-63. This includes copy correspondence and telegrams with: British Ministers at Italy, Egypt, Jedda and Saudi Arabia; the Imam of Yemen [Yaḥyā Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn]; the Sultan of Mukalla; Muhammad bin 'Umar Al Qu'ayṭī; and the Government of the Nizam of Hyderabad.

There are extensive correspondence, memoranda and reports by: the Aden Chief Commissioner (later Governor); the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office; William Harold Ingrams, Political Officer at Aden, and later Resident Adviser at Mukalla; the Secretary of State for the Colonies (William Ormsby-Gore, later Malcom Macdonald).

A copy of William Harold Ingrams, A Report on the Social, Economic and Political Condition of the Hadhramaut (London: HM Stationery Office; 1936) is included at folios 425-518.

The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 4).