Page 260 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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198 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
the clarification of the problem was taken in 1934, by the Govern-
ment of the United States when it formally asked the United Kingdom
about the legal position of the eastern boundaries of Arabia. In reply,
the United Kingdom communicated to the United States copies of
two documents, commonly known as the Anglo-Turkish Conventions
of 29 July 1913 and 9 March 1914,1 and stated that, in her view, these
Conventions formed the basis of the definition of the eastern bound­
aries of Arabia.2 On 28 April 1934 the United Kingdom, through her
Minister at Jiddah, officially informed the Saudi Arabian Government
of her reply to the United States and sent, for the information of the
Saudi Government, two copies of the above Conventions.3
This communication marked the beginning of the British-Saudi
diplomatic controversy over the eastern boundaries of Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, on 13 May, Acting Saudi Foreign Minister, Fuad
Hamzah, wrote to the British Minister at Jiddah, Sir Andrew Ryan,
that his Government did not consider the above Conventions as bind­
ing upon it. However, Fuad Hamzah expressed his Government’s
desire to conduct negotiations with the United Kingdom for the
purpose of reaching an equitable settlement of the boundaries
question.4
Negotiations on the Saudi Arabian eastern boundaries continued
intermittently between 1934-8. This formed the first phase of the
negotiations which were interrupted by the Second World War.5 The
second phase of the negotiations which were resumed after the War
took place between 1949-52. During this latter period two confer­
ences were held, the London Conference of 1951, and the Dammam
Conference of 1952, but no agreement was reached by the parties.6
The first Saudi Arabian proposal for defining her boundaries with
Qatar, Muscat, the Trucial States and the Aden Protectorate was con­
tained in a Memorandum of 3 April 1935. This proposal, commonly
known as the ‘Fuad Line’, defined the Saudi Arabian boundaries as
follows.
1. With Qatar, the line
begins at a point on the coast of the sea known as Dauhat Salwa and runs
along the extension of the point of junction of Jabal Dukhan with the
territory adjacent to the west, leaving to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the
area to the west thereof, which lies between Jabal Dukhan and Jabal
al-Nukhsh, and leaving to Qatar Jabal Dukhan and whatever lies beyond
it to the east.

1 For reference, see below, pp. 218-19.
* British Memorial, II, Annex D, No. 3, See Map 2. _ ,
3 Saudi Memorial, II, Annex 4, p. 18; British Memorial, II, Annex D, No. 4.
4 Saudi Memorial, II, Annexes 5, 6 and 7.
* Saudi Memorial, I, pp. 400-18.
e Ibid., pp. 419-42.