'ARBITRATION CONCERNING BURAIMI AND THE COMMON FRONTIER BETWEEN ABU DHABI AND SA'ŪDI ARABIA' [With maps] [‎51v] (107/541)

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latitude 17°N. to join and continue along the Violet Line of the Anglo-Turkish
Convention of 1914. (1)
Tm tint, n nvth the Sfl‘udi 1935 Lines would cut olf the territory of Qatar
26. .hi the north, and woul( j transfer from Qatar to Sa‘udi
completely from that of • ’ geographically within the peninsula of
Arabia an appreciable area ot territory, geoguipniL y sf) veremntv n,,
Qatar. For the rest, the Sa‘udi 1935 Lmes would extend Sa ud^ sovereignty
only over the whole of the great desert of the Rub ^ ;^ ha il; ^ other l^rnlf
intn thp natural hinterlands of the several Eastern States. On me otner nand, it
s noteworthy that the Sa‘udi 1935 Lines-which were described three months
ater as having been defined “ after the most careful investigation into the actual
stoatSn aUhe present moment ’’--recognized that Liwa and the coast north of
Llwa, together with the intervening hinterland, belonged to Abu Dha i. ^orcover^
under these 1935 Sa’Qdi claims, the Sa’udi frontier did not approach within 00
miles of Buraimi. Finally, it is to be observed that, in the southern region the
Sa‘udi Government, for some 250 miles, incorporated in their frontier the Line laid
down in the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1914.
27 Extensive as they were, the Sa’udi claims did not seem to exclude the
possibility of an acceptable settlement of the frontier somewhere between the new
Sa'udi Lines and the Blue Line. Accordingly, the British Government, which had
previously been given cureful consideration to the problern of the frontier, made an
immediate response to the Saudi Memorandum, by offering a substantial amend
ment of the Blue Line, in order to take account of what seemed to be a genuine
Sa’udi interest to the east of that Line. This Saudi interest lay in the fact that there
were two Ikhwan settlements, Sikak and Anbak, some 35 miles to the east of the
Blue Line. It was also thought not unreasonable that the Sa'Qdi Government
should ask for the strip of coast between the Blue Line and the base of the Qatar
peninsula. The British offer, therefore, which was presented by the British
Ambassador in an Aide Memoire, dated April 9, 1935 <3) , proposed a frontier
running from the head of the bay, Dauhat as-Salwa a few miles in a south-easterly
direction, and then running almost due south as far as latitude 20°N., from which
it would join the Violet Line of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, at about latitude
18"N. This Line, which is shown in green on Map B, conceded to Ibn Sa’ud a belt
of territory to the east of the Blue Line, some 45 miles in width, and including the
two Ikhwan settlements, as well as all the coast-line west of the Qatar peninsula.
On the other hand, it left to Qatar all the Qatar peninsula and to Abu Dhabi the
Khaur al-‘Udaid and the well of Banaiyan to the south, which the British Govern
ment believed to belong to Abu Dhabi. The Sa’udi Government made no comment
on the British offer, until Fuad Bey Hamza, nearly three months later, again went
to London for conversations on various questions outstanding between the two
Governments.
28. At the second series of London conversations between Fuad Bey Hamza
and Mr. Rendel, the question of the northern part of the frontier was discussed
at some length at the first meeting on June 24, 1935, and again, very briefly, at
four further meetings.' 1 Fuad Bey Hamza contended that the frontier defined
n t he British offer of April 9 was not based on any material facts, and that the
Banaiyan belonged to the Murrah tribe, who were claimed by King Ibn
Sa ud. The Sa udi Government’s proposals, on the other hand, formulated in its
Memorandum of April 3, were based, so Fuad Bey Hamza maintained, upon the
most important factor in the desert—namely, the recognized grazing grounds
iu j ° t ie variou s nomadic tribes. He also maintained that a decisive factor in
the desert area, to the south, must be the ownership of the wells, and claimed that,
not only Banaiyan but a string of wells from there, north-eastwards to Safaq,
were owned by the Murrah, a Sa’udi tribe. On being asked to provide more detailed
information to substantiate his contentions in regard to the Sa’udi proposals,
i 0mmun,cated , to Mr - Mendel a Memorandum dated July 2,
j stification of those proposals—. Having regard to the enormously more
tha^ir^Fnlfrt^p^pf 6 to ' da y by the Sa ‘udi Government, it is important to observe
that, in Fuad Bey Hamza s Memorandum the Sa’udi Government insisted that the
(1) See paragraph 2 above.
(a> See paragraph 28 below.
<3) See Annex D, No. 10.
- L°e r An e nex e D?No eX 12. CtS ° f ^ “ ° f these meeti "8s see Annex D, No. 11.