"ملف ٣١/٦١ IV [ابن سعود ١٢٠] المفاوضات الأنجلو-سعودية حول الحدود" [و‎‎٢‎٠‎١] (٥١٢/٤١٤)

[E 6548/269/91]
Mr. Calvert to Sir Samuel Hoare.—(Received November 16.)
(No. 292.)
HIS Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires at Jedda presents his compliments to His
Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State, and has the honour to transmit to him
copy of a letter from Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, dated the 15th October, respecting the
Qatar Oil Concession.
Jedda, October 16, 1935.
Enclosure.
Sheikh Yusuf Yasin to Mr. Calvert.
My dear Mr. Calvert, Mecca, Rajab 17, 1354 (October 15, 1935).
I HAVE received your letter dated the 26th September, 1935 (the 28th Jumad
ath-Thani, 1354), and in reply I have the honour to state the following :—
2. It was strange to our Government that the British Government
disapproved of the correspondence which has taken and is taking place direct
between His Majesty the King and the Sheikh of Qatar, in respect of a matter
concerning the affairs of Qatar, and that you relied on your disapproval upon
article 6 of the Treaty of Jedda, and stated that “ His Majesty King Abdul Aziz
undertook, among other things, to maintain friendly relations with his Excellency
the Sheikh of Qatar, between whom and His Britannic Majesty’s Govern-
uient . . . &c., and whereas your statement and the interpretation of article 6
differ in text, meaning and significance from the contents of article 6, I therefore
write to you herein the copy of article 6 literally, and which begins : “ His
Majesty the King of the Hejaz and of Nejd and its Dependencies undertakes to
maintain friendly and peaceful relations with the territories of Koweit and
Bahrein and with the Sheikhs of Qatar and the Oman Coast, who are in
special treaty relations with His Britannic Majesty’s Government." The
undertaking of His Majesty the King of the Hejaz and of Nejd and its
Dependencies is confined to friendly and peaceful relations with the Amirs of
those territories (literally : directions), and it does not contain any reference to
any undertaking by His Majesty that he should not correspond with them or that
they should not correspond with him, and therefore nothing has been changed
since the Treaty of Jedda in the relations which had existed between His Majesty
and those Amirs, but friendly and peaceful relations remained complete and
perfect, and correspondence is exchanged between His Majesty and them in
respect of various affairs, because this assures the friendly and peaceful relations
which His Majesty undertook to maintain. The treaties referred to in article 6,
concluded between the British Government and those Amirs, are the concern of
the Amirs, and they (His Majesty’s Government) may bind them with them, but
they (His Majesty’s Government) cannot bind our Government with them.
3. As regards your reference to (the fact) that the British Government, in
accordance with their (willingness) to deprive themselves of their strict legal
ri .ghts, and offer a part of those rights to the Saudi Arab Government, &c.
(literally : to the end of your statement on the subject), I am glad to draw your
attention in this respect to the true facts that our Government always desire that
Jheir relations with the Amirs of those territories (literally : directions) should
be lasting relations of affection and friendship, and do not desire to restrict
(literally : press upon) them and their affairs, and they (Saudi Arab Govern-
m ent) showed their readiness to grant them areas (territories) to the utmost extent
[556 q—1]