File 3939/1926 Pt 6 'Revision of Aitchison's Treaties. Persian Gulf Section.' [‎331r] (97/818)

PERSIAN GULF— Nejd —NO. V—1925.
37
yet leave the door open to a great number of troublesome incidents of a kind of
which we have had cause to complain in the past. In particular, I have submitted
to you the following incidents as being of the kind which habitually occur in life
• in the desert:—
(а) what should the attitude of the Nejd Government be if an ’Iraqi tribe
having committed a reprehensible crime involving killing and plunder,
were to take refuge in Nejd ; and what would the same Government s
attitude be if that refugee tribe were to commit the same crime,
notwithstanding guarantees being taken from it;
(б) what should the attitude of each of the Governments of Iraq and of
Nejd be if a Nejd tribe, having been punished by the Nejd Govern
ment for a raid into ’Iraq, were to take refuge into ’Iraq and then to
raid Nejd from ’Iraq, as was done by those tribes who had taken re
fuge with Nejd and then gone over to ’Iraq, after the well-known
incidents connected with Yusuf 9a dun 1
I beg that you will examine these questions carefully. After considerable
experience, I see no effective way of circumventing the trouble other than that
Nejd and ’Iraq should both admit the principle of the surrender of criminals, an
that criminals having perpetrated a crime in their country should be pre\ente
from seeking refuge into the other country. Measures based on any other P rin
ciple would not, in my opinion, shut the door on the dissensions of which we a
complain ; and I ask that this statement of mine should be put on record so that
it may be referred to in the future, and so as to set my conscience at rest in ca.e
such incidents, of the kind which we deplore and would prevent with all our e
were to recur,
Usual respects.
’AbdvVAziz ibn Abdu’r-Rahman ibn Sa’ud.
Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc.. His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Ple
nipotentiary, to His Highness 'Abdul-'Aziz ibn Abdu r-Rahman a a
Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies,
Bahra Camp,
20th October 1920,
Vour Highmess,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Highness communica
of 1st Rabi’ Thani (19th October 1925) and I note that Your Highness is o opi^
nion that no agreement is likely to establish security on the frontier P
stop to raiding which is not based on the principle that either
the request of the other Government should return, if necessary y
tribes or portions of tribes which may cross over into its territory.