"تقرير بقلم السير جلبرت كلايتون، قائد فرسان وسام القديس مايكل والقديس جورج، فارس الإمبراطورية البريطانية، ورفيق وسام الطهر، عن بعثته إلى ملك الحجاز ونجد وتوابعها، بغرض التفاوض على تسوية المسائل العالقة. (أبريل-يونيو، ١٩٢٨)" [‎١‎٨] (٩٦/٢٠)

18
of the Muhammara Convention were in any sense a disavowal of its
provisions or a repudiation of his signature. He had every intention
of respecting his undertaking, but he wished to explain how and why
that undertakmg came to be given. The Muhammara Convention
la been signed by his delegate in contravention of the instructions
issued to him, and he (Ibn Sa'ud) had refused to ratify it. When
X!" ,7 to U( l air six months later and insisted on the
with fh i. 0 I Convention, King Ibn Sa'ud found himself faced
with the choice between breaking with His Majesty's Government
and consenting to a frontier which in his opinion violated
the Protn ^ customs of the country. It was then that
bem^ The ob A the all - im P ortant Article 3, came into
fronfW in n ^ 0 i S Artlcle was to minimise the harm of a
as Ibn Si'nf? ma 1C eSert c ? untr y an< ^ its whole intention, as far
territorv on l-fh aS 7 aS that ever y wa ter-point in that
lccess7nT.h^ S1 + ^ fr ? ntier should alwa y s be left fr ce of
forces ThpfT. T fortmcation or any concentration of
people to ronV^r! 17 ^ Kmg ' * is im Possible for me or my
people to consent to the erection of posts in that desert.
discourse ^or^aiSh,—^'' 05 ^ w ^ ou t wishing to interrupt his
necessarv to ask 6 statemen t s he made, I found it
The first was wt^ ^ 66 qil f tl0ns in elucidation of his meaning,
was to be erected nm" h Con . sl ® red that no fortification of any kind
The econd was thlT r ^ ^ deSert from one end to the other,
fortification^rec^rf frf 1 any distincti on between a military
for the purpose of betf 1 ^ mi 7 P ur P oses and a police post erected
hLd was Xether T tter fP er J 1S10n and contro1 in the desert. The
^vemmerU takine- Tnl T derstand that ^ objected to the 'Iraq
frontier for the better pLtarofthetLrtrrer 5 itS ^
questions. He began bv de^rl' 111 ^ T x P licit . or complete reply to my
could be regarded as a nolirp 1 ^ 6 that tlle fort at Bllsai y a
distinction in fact could be marllw that ' in tlle deser t. no
post, and that the material point if ^ millt 1 ar y P ost and a Police
points were or were not to b^n^ri k 6 W x S whe t her certain water-
and in general a display of armed force men ' buildings '
the 6 Ki^ f relat1 ^ t0 the desert area, and asked
the provisions of Article 3 that nolV) rf. wbe t her he understood from
erected anywhere at anv no i ort ^ ca tion of any kind was to be
that desert Te Ki^ and what he meant by
need be considered was tint it - p a r0m Z 8 P oin t of view, all that
had been drawn in the Muhammara r" 058 ^ cl1 an ar tificial frontier
at Uqair, he was faced with the choice^ 1 He r . e P ea t ed that,
in a country where nomarhV ^ a -+- between accepting a frontier
v wnere nomad,c conditions precluded the establishment