File 2182/1913 Pt 8 'Arabia – Policy towards Bin Saud' [‎319v] (223/602)

“ I am one of the greatest helpers to the Government of Great Britain, and
Tsingl Te of them to remain (in these parts) after our occupation, and have
turned them all . hree matterg me ntioned by you, namely the promise
of the exalted Government 8 to protect and safeguard us against the Ottoman
Lihi « >11 [~1> »f Nejl .1-Hm >nd Q.lrf, th,
am leaving my • nrr |p r +V,at we may earn the approval ot
make the necessary verbal negotiations, m order » y
r^nvp.rnment of Great Britain.
No further steps were taken on th^ Brtoh side till Captain f ^e^pear travelling
Bahrein and Koweit, reached Bm bauds camp on
' 304 During ^he next'^few days he discussed exhaustively with Bin Sand the latter’s
iJur g f -RrUoin and Turkey since their previous meeting a year before.
Bin Saud 7etreT^ ^ad received from representatives of Great
Britatn duSg the past three months, and dwelt especially upon the letter of the
3 rd Novembe?, VJU, from the Officiating Besident in the Gulf. He cited the three
assurances contained in it, but remarked that
“ the document was a vague letter, did not specify whether the assurances were
limited merely to the present war or also included the future, gave no hi t
whether other conditions 1 would be required of himself later and could not b*
regarded as a binding instrument between the two parties for the future.
Captain Shakespear concluded from these conversations that Bin Saud
“ had no intention of abandoning his neutral position, with freedom to make his
own arrangements with the Turks (and he was confident that he could secure from
them a very good ‘ second best’) until he held a signed and sealed treaty with the
British Government ; nor would he move a step further towards making matters
either easier for us or more difficult for the Turks so far as the present war was
concerned, until he obtained in that treaty some very solid guarantee of his position,
with Great Britain practically as his suzerain.”
Captain Shakespear therefore asked Bin Saud to draw up “ a preliminary draft,
containing what he was prepared to accept and what he desired, which he (Captain
Shakespear) might then forward to His Majesty’s Government for their consideration
This suggestion was promptly carried out by Bin Saud, and in a report, dated the
4 th January, 1915, to Sir P. Cox (in which the foregoing conversations were also put on
record) Captain Shakespear submitted a rough translation of Bin Saud’s desiderata
« xhe clauses which will be reasons for a binding agreement between myself
(‘ Bin Saud ’) and the Great British Government
“ 1 That the British Government will acknowledge and admit that Nejd,
al-Hasa, Qatif, their surroundings and the ports appertaining to them
on the shores of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. are to me and (are) the territory of
my fathers and forefathers ; that I am the independent ruler of them,
and after me my sons and their descendants by inheritance; and that
the above-mentioned territory is an independent territory in which
there is no (right of) interference to any foreign Power.
“ 2 . That they (the British Government) will declare its (the territory s)
boundaries north, south, east, and west, by land and by sea, and that
(regarding) the nomads who wander between neighbouring towns,
which are either under British protection or (directly) under British
Government, if there should arise differences between me and the
chiefs of the said towns and complaints be made m (these) matters,
they should be decided according to the ownership of fathers and
ancestors.