'ARBITRATION CONCERNING BURAIMI AND THE COMMON FRONTIER BETWEEN ABU DHABI AND SA'ŪDI ARABIA' [With maps] [‎48r] (100/541)

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M
1 U T l B f U J f th An gl°-Turkish Conventions of 1913 and 1914 had
the character of a boundary settlement permanently laying down as between the
two countries, the eastern frontier of Hasa’ and Najd Such being the case aS* m
of the 1914 Conventbn under a weu recognised'princSe ^
abrogated by the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Turkey on October 31
1914. Similarly when Ibn Sa‘ud, shortly afterwards, threw off the suzerainty of
Turkey, and established himself as the independent Ruler of Hasa’ and Naid these
territories in his hands remained subject to the permanent boundary settlement
laid upon them by Article III of the 1914 Convention. That this was the case follows
from another well recognized principle of treaty law (1) . Accordingly, Ibn Sa‘ud
after establishing Hasa’ and Najd as an independent Sa‘udi State in 1914 was
bound, as between himself and Great Britain, to recognize the Blue Line as the
limit of those territories. The whole purpose of Great Britain in securing the
acceptance of the Blue Line in 1914, as the eastern frontier of Hasa’ and Najd,
was, of course, to safeguard from encroachment the territories of Qatar and Abu
Dhabi, for whose protection she was responsible, and of Muscat and ‘Oman with
which she had treaty relations.
4. On June 13, 1913, Ibn Sa‘ud, while still uncertain as to the Turkish reaction
to his incursion into Hasa’, addressed himself to Sir Percy Cox, the British Political
Representative in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , in the following terms' 2 ':—
“ We beg to address your Honour in consideration of the previous friend
ship between us and you and of the still earlier treaty belonging to the time of
my grand father Faysal... I desire to establish the same in the same manner as
it existed between you and my ancestors ”.
This was presumed by the British Government to be a reference to the Declaration
of April 21, 1866 (3) , on the part of the Imam ‘Abdullah bin Faisal, in which he gave
an assurance that he would not “ injure or attack the territories of the Arab tribes
in alliance with the British Gov'. . . . further than in receiving the Zukat that
has been customary of old ”. Having regard, however, to Ibn Sa‘ud’s being under
the suzerainty of Turkey in 1913, the British Government did not then feel able to
pursue the question of concluding a treaty with him. It was only after the outbreak
of war between Great Britain and Turkey, and the ensuing repudiation of Turkish
suzerainty by Ibh Sa‘ud, that a Treaty of friendship was concluded between Ibn
Sa‘ud and the British Government, on December 26, 1915 (4) .
5. In the preamble to this Treaty, Ibn Sa‘ud described himself as “ Abdul
Aziz bin Abdur Rahman bin Faisal Al-Saud, Ruler of Najd, El Hassa, Qatif and
Jubail, and the towns and ports belonging to them ” (6) . Again, in Article (I) the British
Government acknowledged, and admitted, that:—
“ Najd, Al Hasa, Qatif and Jubail, and their dependencies and territories,
which will be discussed and determined hereafter, and their ports'^' are the
countries of bin Saud and of his fathers before him.”
The places named in the preamble as being the territories ruled over by Ibn Sa‘ud
and his forefathers consisted of (i) the districts of Najd, and (ii) three principal
towns of the district of Hasa'—Hasa’, Qatif, and Jubail—together with their
dependencies, territories and ports. It is clear from the language and the context
that the words “ dependencies ”, “ territories ”, and “ ports ” denoted the minor
towns and countryside attached to Hasa’, Qatif and Jubail. Accordingly, the areas
defined in the 1915 Treaty, as the existing possessions of Ibn Sa‘ud, included, at
most, the districts of Najd and Hasa’—a definition which closely corresponded with
the actual facts as they existed at that date. It is, therefore, clear that, in the
Anglo-Sa‘udi Treaty of 1915, Ibn Sa‘ud and the British Government jointly
recognized that both the existing and the ancestral territories of the Sa‘udi Rulers
did not extend to the east of the districts of Najd and Hasa’.
6. The re-establishment of Sa‘udi control over the coastal province of Hasa
in 1913 had alarmed the Trucial Shaikhs and especially the Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
It was, therefore, natural that the British Government, in its Treaty of 1915 with
111 For a further discussion of the legal effects of the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Tur ey
of 1914 Convention, and of the establishment of the Independence of Ibn Sa‘ud, see Part IX, sect. A, ol t is
(2) See Annex D, No. 2.
(3) See Annex A, No. 5.
(4) See ibid., No. 9.
(5) The italics have been added.