'ARBITRATION CONCERNING BURAIMI AND THE COMMON FRONTIER BETWEEN ABU DHABI AND SA'ŪDI ARABIA' [With maps] [‎51r] (106/541)

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discussions very far, since Fuad Bey Hamza was w;th™,+ a • .
from the Sa'udi Government as to LngTta Srtd* SeS
Government, while it said that it would not insist unon it<? r ; i, t The ? ritl , sh
Angio-Turkish Conventions of 1913 and ^VrempSzed
waive its strict legal rights was entirely dependent upon a satisfactoTv seftiemern
being reached on the questions outstanding between the two Governments Fuad
Bey Hamza, on his side, said that the British reliance upon the Anglo-Turldsh
Conventions had come as a shock to King Ibn Sa‘ud. He also complained that
they had not been referred to, either at the conclusion of the 1915 Treaty or durins
the negotiations for the Treaty of Jiddah, in 1927, when King Ibn Sa‘ud had asked
concerning British relations with the Trucial Shaikhs, and had been furnished with
copies of their treaties, but not of the 1913 and 1914 Conventions. In this con
nexion, Mr Rendel pointed out that King Ibn Sa‘ud had only asked for the treaties
with Trucial Shaikhs, and that the Blue Line was a matter of notoriety and
appeared on several maps <2) . y ’
23. Fuad Bey Hamza also indicated that King Ibn Sa‘Qd would claim that
tribes formerly under his rule should so continue, and that their territories should be
included in his dominions. He mentioned particularly the Murrah and the Manasir
as tribes which the King claimed to be within this category. Mr. Rendel replied
that, while there was, perhaps, some reason to consider the Murrah to be closely
connected with Sa‘udi Arabia, the Manasir were of more doubtful allegiance, and
were stated to be largely dependent upon the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi.
24. The London meetings of September, 1934, having proved abortive
owing to Fuad Bey Hamza being without definite instructions as to the Sa‘udi
Government’s statement of its claims, the British Ambassador in Jiddah asked
him in conversations on January 20 and 21, 1935, whether the Sa‘udi Government
would produce a precise statement of King Ibn Sa‘ud’s claims in regard to the
disputed boundaries. Sir Andrew Ryan renewed his request for a precise statement
of King Ibn Sa‘ud’s desiderata on March 1, when Fuad Bey Hamza promised to
consult the King, but said that he could not hope to produce the statement until
after the King’s arrival in Mecca, eight days later. In due course, on April 3, 1935,
Fuad Bey Hamza handed Sir Andrew Ryan a Memorandum, written in Arabic,
and entitled:—
“ Statement regarding the Frontier Line dividing the Saudi Arab Kingdom
and Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Debai, Sharjah, Ras-el-Khaima and other Arab Amirates
and Sheykhdoms situated on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , the Sultanate of Muscat and
Oman, and the Territories of Hadhramaut and other Arab Sheykhdoms and
Amirates situated in the east, south and south-east of Arabia ” <3) .
The original of this memorandum is in the Foreign Office Archives' 4 *. The Sa‘udi
Government took up the position that the Khaur al-‘Udaid belonged to King Ibn
Sa‘ud. It, therefore, dealt separately with the question of Sa‘udi Arabia’s boundary
with Qatar, and the question of her boundary with the other States of South
eastern Arabia.
25. The two Lines defined in the Sa‘udi Government’s Memorandum as being
Sa‘udi Arabia’s boundaries, respectively with Qatar and with the States of Eastern
Arabia, are shown in red on Map B. It will be seen from this map that the northern
Line—the proposed Qatar boundary—won Id start on the west coast of Qatar, some
15 miles up the bay of Dauhat as-Salwah, and, after running eastwards, for about
5 miles, would turn south-eastwards, reaching the east coast some 7 miles north
of the Khau al-‘Udaid. It would leave the Jabal Dukhan to Qatar, but would
give the Jabal Nakhsh, al-Qalail and the Khaur al-‘Udaid inlet to Sa‘udi Arabia.
The other Line—the proposed boundary with Abu Dhabi and the other Eastern
State—would start some 16 miles south of the Khaur al-‘Udaid and, after running
southwards for about 10 miles, would run east-south-eastwards, in a slightly
curving manner, until the intersection of longitude 56°E. and latitude 22°N. From
there it would follow longitude 56°E., as far as latitude 19°N., and then run to the
intersection of longitude 52 °E. and latitude 17°N. whence it would proceed along 1 2 3 4
(1) For the relevant extracts from the British record of these two meetings, see Annex D, No. 8.
(2) See paragraph 13, above.
(3) The italics have been added.
(4) See Annex D, No. 9.