IOR/L/PS/10/391/1

Part 11 concerns British policy regarding the dispute between Bin Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd, also referred to in the correspondence as Ibn Saud] and King Hussein of Hejaz [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī, King of Hejaz] over Khurma and Tarabah [Turabah]. Much of the correspondence documents the efforts of the British to persuade the two leaders to agree to meet. It is initially proposed that the two should meet at Jeddah; however, it is reported by the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, that Bin Saud refuses to meet King Hussein at Jeddah, Aden, or Cairo, and suggests a meeting at Baghdad instead. A number of other possibilities are discussed, including the following: the Secretary of State for India's proposal of a meeting of plenipotentiaries, either at Khurma or Tarabah, as an alternative to a meeting between the two leaders themselves; a suggestion by the High Commissioner, Egypt, that the two leaders meet in London; a proposal from Lord Curzon [George Nathaniel Curzon], Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that Bin Saud should be induced to meet King Hussein on board a British ship at Jeddah, or, as is later suggested, at Aden.

Also included are the following:

• an account from Captain Norman Napier Evelyn Bray, political officer in charge of the Nejd Mission, which recounts the last days of the mission's stay in Paris, in late December 1919;
• a report from the High Commissioner, Egypt, on his recent meeting with King Hussein, which relays the latter's views on the allocation of control of Syria to France;
• discussion regarding the growing power and influence of Bin Saud's Akhwan [Ikhwan] forces;
• a note on the dispute by Harry St John Bridger, in which he volunteers to induce Bin Saud to agree to a meeting at any place (outside of Hejaz) suggested by His Majesty's Government;
• memoranda and diary entries written by the Political Agent at Bahrain, Major Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, all of which discuss at length Dickson's interviews with Bin Saud at Hasa [Al Hasa] in January and February 1920;
• extracts from a report by the British Agent, Jeddah, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Edwin Vickery, which recounts his recent interviews with King Hussein and the King's son, Emir Abdullah [ʿAbdullāh bin Ḥusayn al-Hāshimī].

The item features the following principal correspondents:

• Secretary to the India Office's Political Department (John Evelyn Shuckburgh);
• Civil Commissioner, Baghdad [held in an officiating capacity by Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson];
• High Commissioner, Egypt (Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby);
• Secretary of State for India [Edwin Samuel Montagu];
• Foreign Office;
• British Agent, Jeddah (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Edwin Vickery);
• Political Agent, Bahrain (Major Harold Richard Patrick Dickson);
• Bin Saud;
• Admiralty;
• Viceroy of India [Frederic John Napier Thesiger].