Page 267 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

BRITISH — SAUDI CONTROVERSY OVER BURAIMI 205
President, left the session of the tribunal.1 Later, it was announced
that the President had also handed his resignation. The proceedings
were thus abruptly brought to an end.2
It appears from the terms of Sir Reader Bullard’s letter of resignation
that his main complaint was against what he considered to be ‘the
complete partiality’ of the Saudi member of the Tribunal, Shaikh
Yusuf Yasin, who was also the Deputy Foreign Minister of his
country.
It has become abundantly clear [he said], that Shaikh Yusuf Yasin is, in
fact, in effective control of the conduct of the proceedings on behalf of the
Saudi Arabian Government, and is representing that Government on this
tribunal rather than acting as an impartial arbitrator.3
After the breakdown of the Geneva proceedings the British Prime
Minister announced on 26 October 1955, that the British-officered
forces of Trucial Oman had taken the Buraimi Oasis and ejected the
Saudi police contingent from it. At the same time he informed the
Saudi Government of his Government's decision to reconsider a
settlement of the boundary dispute on the basis of the Riyadh Line,
as modified in 1937, in favour of Saudi Arabia.1 The Saudi Govern­
ment protested at what it termed to be an ‘arbitrary action taken by
the Government of the United Kingdom in resorting to military force
against the Saudi Arabian Oasis of Buraimi’.5
The Saudi Government regarded the charges made by the British
Government against it as unfounded and called upon the British
Government to agree to the resumption of arbitration which did not,
in its view, lose its legal force as a result of the withdrawal of the
British member of the tribunal.0 The British Government rejected

1 The Times, 17 September 1955; Minutes of Sittings of the Buraimi Arbitration
Tribunal, op. cit.
2 The Times, 24 September 1955.
3 The Times, 17 September 1955. In reply to the allegations made by Sir Reader
Bullard, Shaikh Yusuf Yasin said that ‘the tribunal had thus been frustrated in
expressing its views on the charges’, as a result of the resignation of the British
member. About himself, he said that ‘the whole tribunal has always been aware
that, in addition to my duties as a member, I have continued to discharge my
duties as Deputy Foreign Minister’ of Saudi Arabia. See ibid., 19 September 1955.
4 The Times, 27 October 1955. In a statement to the House of Commons on
20 February 1956, the then British Prime Minister, Sir (now Lord) Anthony Eden,
reported to the House the military measures taken by the British Government in
Buraimi in the previous year, and reiterated his Government’s wish to uphold the
Riyadh Line, as amended in 1937. But he added that his Government was ready
to discuss ‘any minor rectifications of the line which may seem convenient in the
light of local circumstances’. See The Times, 21 February 1956.
1 The Times, 27 October 1955.
8 It is noteworthy that Britain’s abrupt withdrawal from the Arbitration Tri­
bunal at the time and her unexpected seizure, five weeks later, of the Buraimi
Oasis was criticised by neutral observers as arbitrary and high handed. It is noted,