Page 105 - Arabian Studies (II)

The Powers and Mineral Concessions in the IdrTsTImdmate of 'A sir 95

The Company then requested the British Government to induce
the IdrTsT to respect the Company’s rights and asked if H.M.G.
would send a vessel to the vicinity of Farasan on the 15 th August,
the day when the IdrTsT had demanded that the Company should
stop work. It was then that ibn Sa‘ud informed the Senior Naval
Officer of the Red Sea Sloops that he had asked the IdrisT to find a
means of settling the dispute. Shortly afterwards, on 16 August 1927
ibn Sa‘ud informed the British Consul in Jeddah that he had
investigated the matter and found that the Company had accepted
certain conditions, but now found themselves unable to meet them
all and this the inhabitants of the islands regarded as harmful. Ibn
Sa‘ud recognized that ‘others’ were encouraging the population to
make trouble. The best solution, he suggested, would be for himself
and the British to negotiate the matter together and then to send his
representative to JTzan to find, in agreement with a British
Government representative, the Oil Company and Sayyid Hasan
al-IdrisT a solution acceptable to all. I 0 s This was not an acceptable
course for the British Government as it would have involved
recognition of ibn Sa‘ud’s authority over ‘AsTr, and so the Foreign
Office instructed Jeddah to thank ibn Sa‘ud for his offer to mediate
but to add that the H.M.G. did not consider intervention by either
ibn Sa‘ud or the British Consulate at Jeddah opportune ‘at this
juncture’. 1 0 6
Sayyid MirghanT then visited the British Consulate at Jeddah and
said that he believed Sayyid Mustafa had promised the chiefs of ‘AsTr
arms without the consent of the Oil Company. A solution could, he
suggested, be achieved if the Manager of the Company was to meet
with five or six of the ‘AsTri tribal leaders. 1 0 7
At the end of August the Company again wrote to Aden to the
effect that the IdrTsT had agreed that the Company had carried out
all engagements signed between the IdrTsT and Cooper, but demanded
a gift of 3000 cases of ammunition and 3000 rifles and an alteration
of royalties from the then ‘£1 for every ton to 25 per cent in kind of
the refined product and also loans, amounts unspecified’, to the
IdrTsT Government whenever called for. The Company then
requested the Foreign Office to persuade the IdrTsT to respect the
terms of the contract. The letter went on to complain about the
Foreign Office’s instructions to the British Consul in Jeddah that no
action should be taken to protect a British Company. At the same
time the Company informed the IdrTsT that it would supply no more
arms nor permit an increase in the royalties adding that it could not
afford to pay more as there was no certainty that oil existed.10 8
Britain remained convinced that Italian intrigue lay behind the
IdrTsT’s moves and accordingly addressed Count Delfino di Villanova,