'File 1/A/38 II Negotiations with Bin Saud re: Eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia with Qatar & Trucial Oman.' [‎86r] (176/472)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY
orii.
IS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
June 25, 1935.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 3.
[E 3944/77/91]
Record of First Meeting with Fuad Bey Hamza held at the Foreign Office
on June 24, 1935.
THE following were present at the meeting :—
Mr. Rendel.
Sir Andrew- Ryan (His Majesty’s
Minister at Jedda).
Mr. Ward.
Mr. Malcolm.
Fuad Bey Hamza (Deputy Saudi
Arabian Minister for Foreign
Affairs).
Sheikh Hafiz Wahba (Saudi Arabian
Minister in London).
Mr. RENDEL recalled the discussions which had taken place with Fuad
Bey in London in September 1934 and had been continued in Jedda during the
winter. The most important question dealt with during those discussions had
been that of the eastern and south-eastern frontiers of Saudi Arabia. The
position was that the Saudi Government had communicated a statement of their
claims to Sir A. Ryan on the 3rd April, and that Sir A. Ryan, on the instructions
of His Majesty’s Government, had offered the Saudi Government a strip of
territory to the east of the Anglo-Turkish boundary (generally known as the
“ blue line ”), which, as Fuad Bey was aware—although it had been agreed not
to stress this aspect of the question for the present—His Majesty’s Government
regarded as the present legal boundary. The concession which His Majesty’s
Government had now offered was shown on the map of which Mr. Rendel gave
Fuad Bey a copy, by a green line, and Fuad Bey would observe that it included
the whole of the western shore of the Dobat-as-Salwa, the important strategic
post of Qasr-as-Salwa, and the Akhwan settlements of Sakak and Mabak (Anbak)
at the base of the Qatar Peninsula, whence it ran due south to the Abu Dhabi
well of Banaiyan. The Saudi Government had not yet replied to this offer, and
Fuad Bey had left Arabia before it could be discussed. It had therefore been
agreed that the conversations should be continued in London, and Mr. Rendel
suggested that Fuad Bey should begin by giving his views on Sir A. Ryan’s offer.
FUAD BEY HAMZA replied that he had the impression that the frontier
line offered by Sir Andrew Ryan was not based upon any relevant material facts.
The proposals contained in the Saudi memorandum of the 3rd April were, on the
other hand, based upon the most important factor in the desert, namely, the
recognised grazing grounds (“ diras ”) of the various nomadic tribes. He was
convinced that it would be impossible to draw the frontier on anything but a
tribal basis of this kind, and he saw no alternative to the system proposed by the
Saudi Crovernment.
Mr. RENDEL observed that it would be difficult to base a line on purely
tribal considerations. The greater part of the area concerned consisted of an
immense expanse of featureless desert more comparable to a sea than to any
ordinary land area. According to the information of His Majesty’s Government
the various tribes wandered very widely over this area, and it would be impossible
to base territorial claims on the extent of these wanderings. Moreover, the
information in the possession of His Majesty’s Government was that many of
these tribes were of uncertain and shifting allegiance. There were, of course,
certain areas which were predominantly or exclusively frequented by certain
tribes, owing a definite and exclusive allegiance to a particular ruler. His
Majesty’s Government had taken such circumstances into full account in making
their proposals. But an arrangement based on tribal considerations alone would
certainly prove impracticable.
SIR A. RYAN supported Mr. Ren del's view that a simple allocation of
tribal areas could not replace a territorial frontier. Every attempt to leave
[431 bb—3] b