File 1166/1925 'Arabia: Nejd; negotiations with Ibn Saud regarding Iraq-Nejd question and Trans-Jordan boundary; Sir G Clayton's mission; Bahra agreement, 2nd November, 1925' [‎160r] (326/769)

2. I am of opinion that the Agreement which you presented for
discussion this morning, although it may achieve some of the purposes
for which we strive, does yet leave the door open to a great number
of troublesome incidents of a kind of which we have had cause to
oompiam in the past. In particular, I have submitted to you the
follow mg incidents as being of the kind which habitually occur in life
in the desert :— ]
(a) what should the attitude of the Nejd Government be if an
‘Iraq! tribe, having committed a reprehensible crime involving
killing and plunder, were to take refuge in Nejd ; and what would
the same Government’s attitude be if that refugee tribe were to
commit the same crime, notwithstanding guarantees beinir taken
from it; ° &
( (^) what should the attitude of each of the Governments of
Iraq and of Nejd be if a Nejd tribe, having been punished by the
Nejd Go\ernment for a raid into ‘Iraq, were to take refuge into
‘Iraq and then to raid Nejd from ‘Iraq, as was done by those
tribes who had taken refuge with Nejd and then gone over to
Iraq, after the well-known incidents connected with Yusuf
Sa‘dun ?
I beg that you will examine these questions carefully. After con
siderable experience, I see no effective way of circumventing the
trouble other than that Nejd and ‘Iraq should both admit the prin
ciple of tiie surrender of criminals, and that criminals having per
petrated a crime in their country should be prevented from seeking
refuge into the other country. Measures based on any other principle
W'ould not, in my opinion, shut the door on the dissensions of w^hich
we all complain ; and I ask that this statement of mine should be
put on record so that it may be referred to in the future, and so as to
set my conscience at rest in case such incidents, of the kind which we
deplore and would prevent with all our efforts, w^ere to recur.
Usual respects.
(Sealed) ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdu’r-Rahman ibn Sa‘ud.
Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commis
sioner and Plenipotentiary, to His Highness { Abdu’W Aziz ibn
'Abdu’r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its
Dependencies.
Your Highness,
Bahra Camp,
20th October, 1925.
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Highness’ com
munication of 1st Rabi‘ Thani (19th October, 1925), and I note that
Your Highness is of opinion that no agreement is likely to establish
security on the frontier and put a stop to raiding which is not based
on the principle that either Government at the request of the other
Government should return, if necessary by force, any tribes or
portions of tribes which may cross over into its territory.