IOR/L/PS/12/2201

The file concerns regulations regarding the prohibition of the import, sale, carrying and possession of arms in the Hejaz kingdom, and later the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The regulations were all published in the Saudi newspaper Umm al Qura [Umm al-Qurá], and consist of the following: a high decree published 15 May 1931 (folios 43-45); a high order sanctioned by the Legislative Assembly, 8 Safar 1352 [2 June 1933] (folios 39-40); and a regulation issued by Ibn Sa'ūd ['Abd al-Raḥmān bin 'Abd al-'Azīz bin Fayṣal Āl Sa'ūd] on 3 Shabān 1354 [31 October 1935] (folios 29-34).

The file also includes correspondence between HM Minister at Jedda (Andrew Ryan), the Foreign Office, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven Fowle), the Political Agent at Bahrain (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch), the Political Agent at Kuwait (Captain Gerald Simpson Hillairet de Gaury), and the High Commissioner for Trans-Jordan (Arthur Wauchope), discussing: the impact of the regulations on tribesmen from Transjordan, Kuwait and the Trucial Coast; the difficulties of enforcing the regulations in the hinterlands; and concerns that Ibn Sa'ūd intended to use the regulations to impose his influence on tribes who moved into Saudi limits from Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references found in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 2).