Page 281 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

BRITISH- SAUDI CONTROVERSY OVER BURAIMI 219
outbreak of war between the two Governments on that date, the
convention was never ratified. It is divided into five parts as follows:
(1) The status of Kuwait and its boundaries; (2) Qatar boundaries;
(3) Bahrain; (4) Turkish recognition of certain British rights relating
to navigation and policing in the waters of the Gulf; (5) Technical
measures connected with the demarcation of the eastern boundaries
of Arabia on the basis of the provisions of the Convention.
The part of the Convention relevant to the present dispute is
Part II, Article 11 of which deals with the demarcation of the bound­
aries of‘El-Katr’ [Qatar]. Article 11 reads as follows:
The Ottoman Sanjak of Najd, the northern limit of which is indicated by
the demarcation line defined in Article 7 of this Convention, ends in the
south at the gulf facing the island of al-Zakhnuniyah, which belongs to the
said Sanjak. A line beginning at the extreme end of that gulf will go directly
south up to the Rub'al-Khali and will separate the Najd from the peninsula
of al-Qatar. The limits of the Najd are indicated by a blue line on the map
annexed to the present Convention. The Ottoman Imperial Government
having renounced all its claims to the peninsula of al-Qatar, it is understood
by the two Governments that the peninsula will be governed as in the past
by shaykh Jasmin bin Thani and his successors. The Government of Her
Britannic Majesty declares that it will not allow the interference of the
shaykh of Bahrein in the internal affairs of al-Qatar, his endangering the
autonomy of that area or his annexing it.1
Article 7 of the Convention deals with the boundaries of Kuwait.
(ii) Anglo-Turkish Convention, 9 March 19142
This Convention constituted a settlement between the British and
the Turkish Governments of the boundaries of Aden Protectorate. It
confirmed a demarcation line drawn up in 1903-5 by experts of both
Governments between Aden Protectorate and the so-called, at the
time, Turkish Wilayat of Yeman\ Ratification of this Convention
was accomplished on 3 June 1914. Article 3 of this Convention em­
bodied Article 11 of the unratified Convention of 1913. This Article
recites:
. . .The boundary of Ottoman territory shall follow a direct line which runs
from Lakmat al-Shu'ub north-eastwards to the desert of Rub'al-Khali at
an angle of 45 degrees. This line shall join in the Rub'al-Khali on parallel
20 degrees, the straight and direct line southwards which leaves the Gulf
of al-Uqair at a point on the south coast, and which separates the Ottoman
territory of the Sanjak of Najd from the territory of Qatar, in accordance

1 Gooch and Temperley, op. cit., p. 193; Hurewitz, I, op. cit., p. 271.
* See Saudi Memorial, I, p. 390. For French text, see Gooch and Temperley,
op. cit., pp. 340-1; Aitchison, pp. 42-3. It is to be noted that this Convention was
not published in the Official List of British Treaty Series or in any other publication,
such as British and Foreign State Papers.