Coll 5/1 ‘Persian Gulf Air Routes: Hasa Coast & Flying over Nejd territory — Saudi regulations for the landing of foreign aircraft’ [‎25r] (49/564)

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ce to he
course,
i
multi-engined aircraft are less likely than those of the Royal Air For
obliged to make forced landings. Moreover, the company would, of course,
automatically profit by the provision (even if primarily established for the Royal
Air Force) of an airway beacon on Jinnah Island, or by Saudi co-operation in
meteorological services.
8. For your information and guidance. His Majesty’s Government are now
disposed to rank the facilities described and numbered in paragraph 2 above in
the following order of importance : —
(4), (1), (2), (3), (5).
As
you will see from the enclosed print, the reasons why His Majesty's
Government desire these facilities were fully explained to Fuad Bey in the course
of the second meeting in London last summer, and were repeated in Mr. Rendel’s
letter of the 27th June to him. In resuming negotiations on the subject, it will,
however, be necessary for you to meet as far as possible the conditions put
forward by the Saudi Government in Fuad Bey’s letter of the 6th July, and you
should, accordingly, also be guided by the following supplementary instructions
in regard to the individual facilities.
9. The insistence of the Saudi Government^ that all constructional and
maintenance work shall be carried out entirely by their own personnel, is
impracticable in the case of the proposed airway beacon (facility No. (4)). It
would be necessarv for one or possibly two experts from the firm providing the
beacon to supervise its actual erection and the construction of the necessary
concrete and metal work for the base and mounting of the light. Little is yet
known about these automatic beacons, and this work could not be executed simply
by following plans, although Saudi labour could, no doubt, carry out the actual
work. At the same time, with a view to meeting the susceptibilities of the Saudi
Government as far as possible, you may suggest to them that the matter could
be arranged to general satisfaction if the experts were to be joined by Saudi
officials, and to proceed to Jinnah Island together by a launch or steamer flying
the Saudi flag, in order to indicate clearly the fact of Saudi sovereignty over the
island. Similarly, the necessary periodical visits for refuelling the beacon (every
two or three months) could be performed by Royal Air lorce personnel in the
company of Saudi officials, who could be met by arrangement at some place on
the coast, such as Uqair. The Royal Air Force would be responsible for all
transport and other arrangements.
10 The prospects of the Saudi Government according facility No. (1)—
permission to fly within gliding distance of the Hasa coast—clearly depends upon
the interpretation laid by the Saudi Government ot Fuad Bey s reseivation
summarised at (b) in paragraph 3 above. Aircraft are now continually fly in g
on passage between Koweit and Bahrein, and it would be quite impossible to seek
prior permission on each occasion when it was desired to fly over Saudi territorial
waters or even to notify such action in advance. A general authorisation
covering all Royal Air Force machines (a.ui if possible those of Imperial
Airways as well) will alone suffice to make this facility of any value At the
;ame time you may mention the readiness of His Majesty s Government to include
in any agreement with the Saudi Government a specific undertaking that every
effort'would he made to avoid flying over the land, and that aircraft would, in
any case only avail themselves of the permission to fly over Saudi territorial
waters in case of danger through bad weather or the risk of engine failure.
11 There seems to be little likelihood of the Saudi Government agreeing
to accord General permission for the Royal Air Force to enter and fly over Saudi
territory without previous notification in order to rescue stranded aircraft
fac Uty No (2)). It may. however, help yon in the presentation of your case on
hts point to insist on the fact that such action-which would, of course, be subject
to immediate notification to the Sand. Government-would only he taken in cases
where there wa° manifest danger to human life, e.g in the case of a flying boat
forced down in rough water or a machine stranded in an uninhabited and
waterless desert. government can be induced to allow the use in emergency
of one or all of tL ffind.ng grounds required under facility No (3), the arrange
ments for construction and maintenance should present less difficulty than in the
case of the airway beacon. All that is required at each landing ground apart
possibly from a certain amount of levelling, is a white circle in the centre and