IOR/L/PS/12/2061

This file primarily concerns relations between France and the Hejaz-Nejd (later Saudi Arabian) Government.

The beginning of the file relates to treaty negotiations between France and Ibn Saud's [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd's] Hejaz-Nejd Government, as well as negotiations between the Hejaz-Nejd Government and the French mandated territories in Syria. It contains copies of letters (forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India) to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from British diplomatic officials reporting on events and on meetings with their French counterparts. The file includes the following:

• Reports of a proposed appointment of a French representative at the court of Ibn Saud.
• Reports on the progression of the treaty negotiations.
• Reports on the contents of the signed treaties (referred to in the correspondence as the Franco-Hejazi Treaty and the Syro-Hejazi Agreement respectively) and of how they compare with the Treaty of Jedda of 1927 [the most recent treaty between Ibn Saud and the United Kingdom].
• Copies of the agreements (in French).
• Reports of the raising of the French Consulate at Jedda to the status of a Legation.

The principal correspondents are His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, succeeded by Albert Spencer Calvert), and the British Minister at Jedda, Andrew Ryan. The French material in this file consists of the aforementioned agreements and accompanying correspondence.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.