20. Mr. MALONEasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any 16 conversations are proceeding with the object of concluding a treaty with the Imam of the Yemen?
§ Mr. AMERYAccording to my present information, the answer is in the negative. The position is that, in September last, a communication was received by the Resident at Aden from the Imam of the Yemen, intimating his readiness to re-open negotiations; and that the Resident, in reply, invited the Imam to send a representative to Aden to confer with him as to the terms of a preliminary agreement. It was proposed that this agreement should include, on the one hand, a recognition by His Majesty's Government of the complete independence of the Yemen and the Imam's sovereignty, and, on the other hand, a clause relating to the frontier of the Aden Protectorate, and defining the actual situation on the boundary. It was hoped that, if a preliminary agreement on those points could he arrived at, a more comprehensive treaty might be drawn up subsequently, disposing of such other disputed questions of detail as might then remain outstanding. A full power has been prepared and forwarded to the Resident, authorising him to negotiate a preliminary agreement on the proposed lines, but, so far as I am aware, the Imam has not yet despatched any representative to Aden.