'File 6/28 III Saudi Arabia-Muscat Boundary' [‎5r] (9/36)

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~LP E.Y
TELEGRAM CYPHER OTP
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE
TO BAHRAIN
TELNO 277
DATED 22/6/50 RECD. 24/6/50.
Confidential.
Addressed to Jeddah telno 136 Saving of June 22nd repeated
for information to Bahrain and Saving to B.M.E.O. and Washington.
Following is text referred to in my immediately preceding
telegram.
His Majesty's Government (have given careful consideration
to the Saudi notes of December 10th 1949 and May 11th 1950.
C
Lpr*'
)
V
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They^propose in this note to deal only with the question of
frontiers and will in due course send separate replies on the
other subjects^dealt with in the Saudi note of May llth x, to which
different considerations apply.
2. His Majesty's Government have noted with disappointment
that the Saudi Government|J.n their note under replylhave not
u ffl
only failed to put forward any constructive proposals which
might have formed the basis for further negotiations, but have
confined themselves to repeating assertions which His Majesty’s
Government have already contested.
3. The Saudi Government were informed^in the Embassy's note
of November 30th 1949^that His Majesty's Government had felt
obliged to take up their position on a basis of their extenua-
*
ting claim. This basis is as follows:-,.
4 . According to International Law Ibn Saud is the successor
to the authority of the Turkish Government to which he acknow
ledged his dependence in a Treaty of 1914 with that Government.
The Turkish Government by signing the Anglo-Turkish Conventions
of 1913 and 1914 acknowledged that their authority in Arabia
did not extend east of lines laid down in those conventions.
Ibn Saud cannot therefore base a claim to the territory lying
east of these lines on any event or circumstance existing prior
to the conclusion of the Conventions. If then he desires to
/establish