IOR/L/PS/12/2103

This volume, which largely consists of copies of Foreign Office and Colonial Office correspondence, concerns affairs on the Nejd-Transjordan frontier and relations between Saudi Arabia and Transjordan generally.

The volume's correspondence follows on from IOR/L/PS/12/2102, documenting the British Government's efforts both to secure mutual recognition between Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and Amir Abdullah [ʿAbdullāh bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī], and to initiate treaty negotiations between Transjordan and Saudi Arabia.

The correspondence includes discussion of the following matters:

• Plans for the expulsion of Beni Atiya [Beni ‘Atīyah] tribesmen from Transjordan into Saudi Arabia.
• Reports of the presence of anti-Saudi conspirators in Transjordan.
• Suspicions of Amir Abdullah's complicity in anti-Saudi intrigues.
• Reports of the concentration of Akhwan [Ikhwan] forces near the Transjordan frontier.
• Allegations made by Ibn Saud that the British Government is failing to take effective steps to suppress anti-Saudi activities in Transjordan.
• Reports of a revolt against Ibn Saud in Asir.
• British policy regarding Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Transjordan.
• Whether it is appropriate to assign nationalities to Bedwin [Bedouin] tribes based in Transjordan and Nejd respectively.

The volume features the following principal correspondents: the High Commissioner, Transjordan (Arthur Grenfell Wauchope); His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires to Jedda (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill); the British Resident, Transjordan (Charles Henry Fortnom Cox); the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Philip Cunliffe-Lister); the Commanding Officer of the Arab Legion (Frederick Gerard Peake); the Commanding Officer of the Desert Patrol (Captain John Bagot Glubb); officials of the Foreign Office and Colonial Office.

In addition to correspondence, the volume includes the following:

• Copies of drafts of a treaty of friendship and bon voisinage, as well as a treaty of extradition, between Transjordan and Saudi Arabia.
• A copy of a draft of the minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 17 January 1933.
• Notes on a conference held between the High Commissioner for Transjordan, the British Resident for Transjordan, and Amir Abdullah, dated 19 February 1933.

The material in this volume dates from November 1932 to April 1933, with the exception of a copy of a letter from His Majesty's Minister at Jedda to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir John Simon), which dates from August 1932.

The volume includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence.