§ LORD LAMINGTON asked His Majesty's Government if they can give any information as to the present position of our relations with the Imam of the Yemen, and whether he holds any hostages of the Aden Protectorate. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I apologise for once again bringing this subject to your attention, but I will do so without making any lengthy remarks in elaboration of the position in the Aden Protectorate. I understand that no treaty has been, as yet, agreed to between ourselves and the Imam of the Yemen, and, therefore, I should like to know what in 636 other respects our relations are with the Imam at the present time. I may say in this connection that in July, when I last addressed your Lordships, there were five countries which had treaties with the Imam. I think they were Russia, Italy, France, Germany and the United States. Yet this country, which is most directly interested in having good relations with the Yemen, is left outside. I believe that at the present time no Briton is allowed to stay there.
§ I should like to know what our trade relations are at the present time. My noble friend Lord Lovat, who has been out There, informs me that they have suffered a great deal. Beyond that I have no information. In July the noble Lord who spoke for the Government described our relations with the Imam as going on very nicely, or some vague expression of that sort. Perhaps that niceness has since been a little improved. I do not know, and I ask for information. What does seem to me a pity is that we should be altogether outside this, the richest part of the great Continent of Arabia. My noble friend opposite, two years ago, paid eloquent testimony to what might be the value of our trade there, and he then sympathised with the position in which the Imam finds himself, largely owing to our treating him as being in a subordinate position—in fact, almost as a brigand chief. He may have a very exaggerated idea of his own importance, never having been out of his country; at the same time he is the ruler of this very fertile part of Arabia, and he has, I believe, accumulated great personal wealth; yet we treat him rather as a naughty schoolboy. I think the noble Lord, in July, said he would be quite willing to send an invitation to the Imam to come over here and negotiate a treaty if he were assured beforehand a treaty could be concluded. I thought that was rather putting the cart before the horse, if you wanted to get into touch with the Imam or his representatives so as to be able to frame a treaty. The noble Lord did not disapprove of the idea: he only put it the other way round.
§ After all, if the imam has exaggerated ideas of his own importance, it has to be remembered at the same time that he is a ruler of great wealth and of great power over the most warlike people in 637 Arabia. He has to deal with the Colonial Office and of course that is a grievance with all the rulers in Arabia. I am not saying this in reference to the noble Lord, Lord Passfield, personally, but the mere fact that they are independent rulers means that they have nothing to do with the Colonial Office. However distinguished our Residents and representatives are at Aden, it is a little galling for an independent ruler to find that he has to treat with someone in a subordinate position in the Colonial Office. I do think some further attempt ought to be made to get into closer contact with the Imam because our trade must suffer, and also we are put to considerable expense in having to keep a fairly large Air Force at Aden as well as a native levy. We are subject to all these disabilities and our prestige suffers. I do not know whether the noble Lord can give me any assurance on the subject of hostages.
THE SECRETARY of STATE FOR THE COLONIES (LORD PASSFIELTD)My Lords, I am afraid my answer will not satisfy the noble Lord who has asked the Question, but I think it is almost impossible to explain the difficulties which stand in the way of our being able to conclude a satisfactory treaty with the Imam, whereas other countries who have no touch at all with him are able to make some sort of treaty. The fact is we are neighbours at Aden of this potentate, and it is just because we are neighbours that we cannot get on terms which enable us to make a treaty. I shall refer to that presently. My first answer is, that the relations of His Majesty's Government with the Imam have not changed since July 23, on which date the subject was last discussed in this House. The Imam wrote a letter to the Resident at Aden and the Resident replied and he has received no reply to the communication which he sent
§ Loan LAMINGTONCan you say what date that was?
§ LORD PASSFIELDI have not the date with me, but it was some time ago. The effect of the Resident's letter was that His Majesty's Government observed with regret that the Imam had not yet found it expedient to give an explicit assurance to respect the boundaries of the Aden Protectorate or to give effect 638 to their humane representations in favour of the release of persons still forcibly detained as hostages in the Yemen. That is our difficulty. The Imam, either in virtue of his chieftainship or in virtue of his ecclesiastical position as a Moslem, will not apparently recognise that we have any right to be in Aden at all, or in the neighbouring Protectorates, and I am afraid we cannot possibly enter into a treaty with him except on the basis that he will be prepared to recognise existing rights whatever they are. It is not a question, as am informed, of any point of detail. The Imam does not seem able, and in fact may possibly not feel that he is entitled by his religion, to recognise the sovereignty of His Majesty's Government over people at Aden, for instance, who are Moslems. That is the difficulty.
The Resident also informed the Imam that His Majesty's Government, whilst anxious to maintain peaceful relations, must reserve complete liberty to take such measures as might he necessary to safeguard the territories of chiefs under their protection. Since the noble Lord put his Question on the Paper, I have been in communication with the Resident who has informed me that the Imam has given no indication of hostile activity on the frontier. So far as I gather, our relations have been good in the sense that nothing has happened. Anything that happens on the frontier is usually bad, and nothing has happened as far as I can gather. With regard to the question of hostages, I am informed that of the forty odd hostages forcibly detained by the Imam last May, one has died and two have escaped. The Resident does not think that further representations could usefully be made on the subject for the present.
I am hound to add that, much as I regret the fact, as we do not get any forwarder with this potentate, I see no alternative but to accept the Resident's advice. The move is with the Imam. We have written to him and assured him of our friendliness rind expressed to him the basis on which we could come to an arrangement with But the Imam has not replied, and we have reason to believe that the very basis of that arrangement—the recognition of our sovereignty at Aden—is not one to which he is inclined to assent. In those cir- 639 cumstances, we can only go on maintaining our position and waiting. It would be, of course, impossible to conclude a treaty with the Imam which left a point like that in doubt, which did not actually recognise our existence there. Of course. it is easy for Powers which have no adjacent territory to the Imam—of which the Imam, apparently, thinks he has been deprived—to enter into some sort of treaty. We do not believe that these treaties represent any considerable value at the present time.
I am sorry I am not prepared with the statistics or particulars as to trade or possible trade. I have not got them in my head, and I cannot give the noble Lord figures, but the last information I had was that very little trade was being done. A certain number of presents was being given by one or other of the Powers to the Imam, which is a way in which it is always possible to sweeten relations, but our advisers do not seem to think that those presents have actually been followed up by any equivalent in the way of trade. That is the position. We have not managed to make a treaty with the Imam, and we do not see our way at present to take any further steps in that direction. It is not a question whether we should invite the Imam to come to London or not. Obviously nothing of that sort would be allowed to stand in the way. But as far as I can make out, it would not further our object to make any advance to this potentate at the present time. I am sorry I cannot give any more satisfactory reply to the noble Lord. I can only tell him that I have looked into the matter as far as I have been able, and I do not see how I can resist the responsible advice which has been given to me by those best acquainted with the subject. I am afraid that is all I can say to-night. I will only add that I shall certainly continue to watch the course of events, and if there is any suitable opportunity for renewing our advances to this Imam I will certainly see that it is taken and that no question of dignity, no question of procedure, shall be allowed to stand in the way of arriving at a satisfactory solution.