Page 68 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

The Retreat from the Gulf 65

defined the eastern limits of Najd and Hasa as a straight line (the ‘Blue Line’ as
it was called from the colour used to denote it on the map accompanying the
convention) beginning on the Gulf coast to the west of Qatar and running due
south, roughly down the middle of the Jafurah desert, to the Rub al-Khali (see
map p. 70). Ibn Saud refused to accept the Foreign Office determination,
insisting that his authority now reached well beyond the Blue Line. There was
some merit to his argument, especially as the convention of July 1913 had never
been ratified. How far to the east of the line his authority extended, however,
was uncertain; so discussions were initiated between the Saudi and British
governments in the early summer of 1934 to decide the location of the Saudi
frontier with Qatar, the Trucial Shaikhdoms, the sultanate of Oman and the
Eastern Aden Protectorate.
The Saudi government put forward its proposed frontier (afterwards known
as the ‘Red Line’) in a memorandum of 3 April 1935. It was in three sections.
The boundary with Qatar began on the western side of the peninsula, about
fifteen miles north of Salwah, and ran across the peninsula to end on the eastern
coast north of the Khaur al-Udaid. The boundary with the Trucial Shaikh­
doms started on the coast about sixteen miles south of Khaur al-Udaid (some­
where along the shore of the Khaur al-Duwaihin) and ran south-eastwards
through the Sabkhat Matti before turning eastwards and continuing on south
of the Liwa oasis. Beyond the Liwa its course was obscure, for the next point of
reference mentioned in the memorandum was the intersection of longitude
56° E with latitude 22°N, which lies to the north of the Umm al-Samim (see
map p. 70). The final stretch of frontier, which purported to define the
landward limits of eastern Oman, Dhufar, the Mahra country and the Had-
ramaut, consisted simply of straight lines arbitrarily laid down by reference to
lines of latitude and longitude and devoid of any named topographical features.
Evidently Ibn Saud had a greatly inflated notion of the limits of his authority,
for the bite he was proposing to take out of the southern half of Arabia
amounted to something between 150,000 and 200,000 square miles.
Most of the claim, of course, was mere bluff, especially that part of it which
related to Oman and the Eastern Aden Protectorate. After due consideration
the British government rejected it and proposed instead a frontier which
corresponded more closely with reality. The Riyad Line (so called because it
was put to Ibn Saud at Riyad on 25 November 1935) began at the western foot
of Qatar and ran south-eastwards to the southern tip of the Sabkhat Matti, and
thence eastwards along the northern edge of the Rub al-Khali to longitude
55 E at its junction with latitude 22°3o'N. From there it continued south-
wards and south-westwards along the marches of Oman, Dhufar and the
Eastern Aden Protectorate, a
, signing a good deal less of the fringes of the Rub
a-Khali to Ibn Saud than he had claimed. In its northern section - that from
Qatar to longitude 550 E - the Riyad Line differed from the Saudi Red Line in

1 at it retained the whole of the Qatar peninsula for that shaikhdom, denied the