BRITISH TREATY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1927, Page 9

BRITISH TREATY

WITH HEJAZ AND NEJD PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP^ | JVEDE PKOYISIONS (British Official Wireless.) ETJGBY, 23ra September. The text is issued of a treaty of friendship and good-understanding between Great Britain and Hejaz and Nejd and its dependencies, which was signed at Jeddah on 20th May and ratified, there on 17th September, together with notes exchanged relative thereto. ] The Treaty was negotiated by Sir Gilbert Clayton and the Amir Feisul, son of the King of Hejaz and Nejd. Article One provides for the British recognition of the complete and absolute independence of the Dominions of the Bang of Hejaz and Nejd and its Dependencies. Article Two provides for peace and friendship between the contracting parties, each undertaking to use all available means •• to prevent its territories being used as the base for unlawful activities directed against tranquility in the territories of the other. Articles Throe and Tour provide that the pilgrimages of British subjects and British protected persons and property shall bo safeguarded while in Hojaz, and that, in event'of the death of any such pilgrims, their possessions shall be forwarded to the rightful heirs througli tho British agent in Jeddah. Article Five provides for a mutual recognition of the national status of subjects, it being understood that the principles of International law in force between independent Governments shall be respected.

Article Six provides for the maintenance of friendly relations by Hejaz and Nejd with the territories of. Kuwait and Bahrain and the Oman Coast, who are in special treaty relations with the British Government, and Article Seven contains undertaking to co-operate with the British Government in suppression of the slave trade. In the Notes exchanged, Great Britain adheres to her definition of the frontier between Hejaz ana Transjordania, and while the Hejaz finds it impossible in. the present circumstances to offeet a final settlement of this question, the undertaking is given to maintain the status quo in the main Akaba district and not to interfere in its administration until favourable circumstances permit a final settlement, in a further Note the British Governmentexpresses its inability, to renounce the right of manumitting slaves, which has long been practiced by British Consular officers and which enables them to liberate any slave who freely presents himself with a request for liberation and repatriation to his country of origin. It is explained that the British Government's insistence is solely based on humanitarian grounds and is not meant as an interference with Hejaz affairs.