Coll 6/67(6) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar: Trucial Coast Oil Concessions' [‎190v] (391/402)

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0 The Doliev of His Majesty’s Government in this question, has since
"ef in W Mr. tcK S/lnd ^ n^iaS
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necessary to assert in public or in a negotiation that, pending such a settl. nt,
the Blue and Miolct lines form the le^ul frontici. , . , . ,
“On a strict view of the legal position, it follows from what has been said
in paragraph 4 that any territories to the east of the Blue line to which none
of the local Arab rulers have an effective title may proper y he acquired by
Tbn Sand. On the other hand, where a local sheikh can put ioi waul leasonable
claim to a piece of territory such territory may be deemed to be lega ; v his,
since, in virtue of the 1914 Convention, Ibn Sand cannot nase any claims to
territory beyond the Blue line on the state of affairs existing befoie 1914. He
can only base them on actual possession acquired ana exeicised since that date.
7 ^ The position of the local sheikhs as thus stated is further reinforced by
article 6 of the Treaty of Jedda of 1927 (see Command Paper 2951), whereby
Thn Sand nndertorkt—
“ To maintain friendly and peaceful relations with Koweit and
Bahrein, and with the Sheikhs of Qatar and the Oman coast [?'.£•, the
Trucial Sheikhs], who are in special treaty relations with His Britannic
Maj esty ’ s Government.
8. It is the view of His Majesty’s Government that, by recognising their
special treaty relations with the local Arab States, Ibn Sand committed himself
to the acceptance of the existing boundaries of those States. But here a new
difficulty arises owing to the fact that, in most cases, these boundaries have
never been clearly defined. The question is, whether the sheikhs are legally
entitled to those territories which, though never clearly defined, have been
commonly regarded in the past as falling within their dominions, even when
they have in fact had no proper claim to those territories and have never
exercised any effective authority over them. If the tribes which inhabit those
territories now recognise the authority of Ibn Sand, the further question arises
whether the Saudi Arabian Government are precluded from putting forward
a claim by article 6 of the Treaty of Jedda. It is difficult to show that they are
so precluded.
9. The Saudi Arabian Government do not, it must be said, accept even
the moderate view of the legal position described in paragraph 4. In the first
place they deny that they are bound by the 1914 Convention at all. They
maintain that this convention was concluded without the knowledge or consent
of Ibn Sand, who had, by the time the two conventions were signed, succeeded
in expelling all traces of Ottoman control or influence from the territories
adjoining the Blue and Violet lines on the west and north, with a Power
which His Majesty’s Government themselves recognised during the Great War
to be a usurper and an oppressor of the Arab race. Since, however, Ibn Sand
himself later in 1914 concluded a treaty formally recognising his dependence
on the Ottoman Government, the Saudi contention would seem to have little real
justification, and there can be little doubt that the 1914 Convention is, in fact,
legally binding on Ibn Sand in his capacity of successor to the Ottoman
Government (see paragraph 4 (ii) and (iii) above).
10. Secondly, the Saudi Arabian Government contend that article 6 of the
Treaty of Jedda did not commit them to recognise any given frontiers claimed
by the Arab sheikhs, a fortiori in cases where those frontiers had never been
clearly defined. This argument has considerably more force than the one
mentioned above, since a modification of the frontiers of Qatar and the Trucial
Sheikhdoms need not affect the special relations of His Majesty’s Government
with those States. But at least it appears justifiable to maintain that article 6
ol the treaty of Jedda committed the Saudi Arabian Government to recognising
the sovereignty of the Arab rulers over territories which had previously formed
the subject of special agreements with His Majesty’s Government, 'and had
been recognised by the latter in or before 1927 as falling within the dominions of
those rulers. As will be seen later, this point is particularly relevant in the
case of the Saudi claim to the territory adjoining the Khor-el-Odeid In other
cases the varying interpretations given to article 6 of the Treaty of Jedda by