IOR/L/PS/10/390/1

Part 9 primarily concerns the dispute between Bin Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and King Hussein of Hejaz [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī, King of Hejaz], and British policy towards both. The item includes the following:

• a note by the India Office's Political Department, entitled 'Arabia: The Nejd-Hejaz Feud', which laments the fact that relations between Bin Saud and King Hussein have to some extent been reflected in the views of the two administrations with which they have respectively been brought into contact (i.e. the sphere of Mesopotamia and the Government of India in Bin Saud's case, and the Cairo administration in King Hussein's case);
• reports on the presence of Akhwan [Ikhwan] forces in Khurma and debate as to which ruler has the stronger claim to it;
• attempts by the British to ascertain whether or not a treaty exists between King Hussein and Bin Saud;
• a copy of a report by Harry St John Bridger Philby entitled 'Report on Najd Mission 1917-1918', which includes as appendices a précis of British relations with Bin Saud and a copy of the 1915 treaty between Bin Saud and the British government;
• reports of alleged correspondence between Bin Saud and Fakhri Pasha, Commander of the Turkish [Ottoman] forces at Medina;
• reports of the surrender of Medina by Ottoman forces;
• discussion as to whether Britain should intervene further in the dispute between Bin Saud and King Hussein;
• details of the proposals discussed at an inter-departmental conference on Middle Eastern affairs, which was held at Cairo in February 1919;
• reports that King Hussein's son Abdulla [ʿAbdullāh bin al-Ḥusayn] and his forces have been attacked at Tarabah [Turabah] by Akhwan forces and driven out.

The principal correspondents are the following:

• Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, temporarily based in Baghdad [Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson, acting Resident in Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Zachariah Cox's absence];
• Civil Commissioner, Baghdad [held in an officiating capacity by Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson];
• High Commissioner, Egypt (General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, succeeded by General Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby);
• Milne Cheetham, Residency, Cairo;
• Secretary to the India Office's Political Department (John Evelyn Shuckburgh);
• Bin Saud;
• King Hussein;
• Feisal [Fayṣal bin Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī], son of King Hussein;
• Foreign Office;
• Secretary of State for India [Edwin Samuel Montagu];
• Harry St John Bridger Philby.