'P G India Office Memorandum No B.437, P.Z.5620/1934, Historical Memorandum on the Relations of the Wahabi Amirs and Ibn Saud with Eastern Arabia and the British Government, 1800-1934' [‎23v] (57/82)

40
193, In the case of Article VI. the Saudi draft, with a very slight verbal
modification, was accepted. In its final form it ran as follows :
<£ Ibn Sand undertakes, as his fathers did before him, to refrain from all
agression on or interference with the territories of Koweit, Bahrain, and
ofthe Sheikhs of Katr and the Oman coast, who are under the protection
of the British Government and who have treaty relations with the said
Government, and the limits of their territories shall be hereafter determined."
The words "other chiefs and tribes " proposed in the original British draft
quoted in paragraph 189 above were omitted in defeience to ibn baud s stats-
ment that the several chiefs whom we did protect and had relations with were
all mentioned, so that the words in question seemed unnecessary.
194. In Article VII, the British draft of which provided that a
further detailed treaty should be concluded " in regard to other matters jointly
concernino-" the British Government and Ibn Saud, Ibn Saud successfully
pressed for the omission of the word other. He pointed out uhat some of the
matters such as boundaries were among those already alluded to in the present
treaty, so that there seemed no need to say " other."
195 From the above it will be seen that it was H.M. Government who them
selves suggested the inclusion.in the treaty of a provision for the subsequent
determination and definition of the boundaries of the I ersian Gulf States, our
special relations with which Ibn Saud undertook to lespect.
Special 7.
Construction of Articles I and II of Irecity of 1915.
196. During 1916 Sharif Husain of Mecca wrote to Ibn Saud asking for
an alliance and assistance. This overture was reported to Sir Percy Cox by the
Amir of Neid, who expressed mistrust of the Sharif's intentions. As a result,
Sir Percy Cox recommended on 8th September 1916 that Ibn Saud should be
" informed definitely that no present or future understanding between us and the
Sharif would prejudice our adherence to the terms of Articles I and II of our
treaty with him of 26th December 1915." He was instructed in reply that "as
the policy of encouraging an Arab State or confederation of States was not dead,
anythi n g repudiating it should be avoided, and that reference to the treaty
should be confined to Article I, as we could not admit that Article II was binding
on us against other Arabs." A verbal assurance on the lines indicated appears
to have been given to Ibn Saud by Sir Percy Cox at Koweit on 21st November
1916.
197. The Foreign Office in a memorandum drawn up about this time
remarked that the wording of Article I of the treaty in effect "commits us to
arbitrate on the territorial questions at issue between Ibn Saud and King Husain,
and in the last resort to impose an effective sanction for our award.
Aitch. XII,
No. iii,
pp. 213-4.
Agreement of 1922 with Ibn Saud on Koweit Boundaries.
198. In 1922 an agreement was reached with Ibn Saud, who in that year
overthrew the Rashid, in regard to the boundaries of Koweit. The agreement
referred in terms to the boundaries accepted by H.M. Government for that
principality in the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 29th July 1913, but, by agree
ment between the two parties, and with the subsequent concurrence of the Sheikli
of Koweit, it varied those boundaries in favour of the Saudi ruler.
Summary , 1914 to 1922.
199. During this period Ibn Saud in 1915 concluded a treaty with
H.M. Government, in which the latter recognised him as the independent ruler
of Nejd, and he undertook not to interfere with the territories of their Arab
proteges. By 1922 he had finally defeated and captured the representative of
the Ibn Rashidi family. In the same year he entered into agreements under which
he received certain concessions in the Koweiti hinterland, and by which the
boundaries of Koweit, Nejd and Iraq were delimited.
%sfo r