مجموعة ٦ / ٦٧ (٦) "حدود جنوب شرق الجزيرة العربية وقطر: امتيازات النفط في الساحل المتصالح" [و‎‎١‎٨‎٢] (٤٠٢/٣٧٠)

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demanded, subject to insistence on the attribution to Qatar of the whole of the
mountains or hills (including the Jebel Nakhsh) composing its physical structure
and to a refusal to entertain the Saudi demand for a boundary extending to the
Persian Gulf east ol Qatar. Sir A. Ryan was instructed to emphasise to Ibn
S ud that the present offer represented the utmost limits to which His Majesty’s
^rnment were prepared to go and that, indeed, they had only felt able to go
tiius far on account of their strong desire to reach a final settlement; ami
further that, while His Majesty’s Government had in no way abandoned their
objections to basing the frontier solely on tribal considerations and were still
strongly of the opinion that historical, geographical and strategic considerations
must also be taken into account, their present offer in fact covered practically
the whole “ dira ” of the Murra tribe (the most important of the three and a half
tribes claimed by Ibn Baud), whose allegiance to him His Majesty’s Government
were prepared in principle to recognise.
20. The boundary thus offered, which is known as the “ Riyadh line,” was
defined as follows in a note handed to Fuad Bey at Riyadh on the
25th November, 1935, by Sir A. Ryan :
(a) A line starting from a point on the eastern shore of the Dohat-as-Salwa Enclosure i in
4 miles to the north-east of the point where the sea is nearest to E ' 757 91 (i 935 ).
Qasr-as-Salwa and- running in a straight line due south-eastwards
for 10 miles (it was decided to indicate the terminal of this line as
key-point A).
(b) Thence the boundary would proceed in as straight a line as possible to a
point (key-point B) midway between Haluwain and Nakhala, but
drawn so as to leave Aqalat-al-Manasir, Farhad, Rimth, Khafur and
the route between Doha and Abu Dhabi, which passes west of the
Sabkhat-al-Amra, to Abu Dhabi, and Haluwain, Bil Deirish and
Raghuwan to Saudi Arabia.
(c) From this point (key-point B) the boundary was to proceed in a straight
line to the intersection of parallel 23° north with meridian 52° east
(key-point Cl; thence in a straight line to the intersection of
parallel 22° 30' north and meridian 55° east (key-point F); and then
along that meridian to its intersection with parallel 20° north
(key-point G).
(d) From there the boundary ran in an approximately straight line, but so as
to leave the Sabkhat Mijora in baudi Arabia and the Ramlat Mugsnni
in Muscat and Oman, to the intersection of meridian 52° east and
parallel 19° north (key-point H) and thence m a straight line to the
intersection of parallel 18° north with the Violet line of the Anglo-
Turkish Convention of 1914.
21. Sir A. Ryan, when making this offer, informed Fuad Bey that the
sections between points G and H were under discussion wit ^ ^
Muscat and subject to his confirmation. He did, however h n t^k^tioif of He
Bey that, subject to the Sultan’s views, it might be possibleHor this section of the
line to be, drawn to include some territory lying to the east ot meridian 5o . th u.
^ new ofit™ rejected on the following day. the 26th November,
mainly on account of the Saudi Arabian Government’s rel « c ‘*“ c « hji^that Vf
Jebel Nakhsh and Khor-el-Odeid Fuad Bey, however more than hinted Hat,^it
wS SSJSS iW<l-Od.id „,d reduce b„
23. It was new more than ever ^daims of Ibu
disputed area was the chief obstacle to a geimral setuem M riesty’s Govern-
Saub m this area extended to p aees he cessmnrf which His ^
ment considered themselves ioi va - , sout p_ eas tern end of the
Khor-ebOdeid, the first of these, a ™;A efaf the property of the Sheikh of
Qatar peninsula, had for long been ieco - ^ t j thp SO uth-western end of
Abu Dhabi, and the other, the Jebel Nakhsh a hill at he ^ ^
the Qatar peninsula forming part of a larger range 0 i . S
Jebel Dukhan, belonged to the Sheik, o f . Uaged partly on the contem
Sil'Sir.f/ov.r -
Enclosure 2,
E. 7475/77/
91 (1935).