Page 295 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

BRITISH-SAUDI CONTROVERSY OVER BURAIMI 233
with Turkey on 15 May 1914.1 The British Government claims that
this treaty was found in the Turkish archives captured at Basrah.
The provisions of this treaty arc summarised as follows:
Under Article 2, Ibn Sa'ud, for himself and his descendants, accepted
the appointment from the Ottoman Government of the post of Wali of
Najd. Under Article 4, he recognised the right of the Ottoman Government
to station soldiers at Qatif and 'Ujair in Hasa. Under Article 7, ... he
agreed to use the Turkish flag, while under Article 9, he agreed (not) to
enter into any correspondence about foreign affairs, or to grant concessions
to foreigners.
Consequently, the British Government argues that ‘when the Anglo-
Turkish Convention (of 1914) was ratified and came into force on
June 3, 1914—a mere three weeks after the execution of the agree­
ment between Ibn Sa'ud and the Turks—Ibn Sa'ud was a subject of
the Turkish Government, and the Turkish Government was competent
to enter into a Convention binding the territory of Ibn Sa'ud’.2
Saudi Arabia, for her part, denies, categorically, that Ibn Sa'ud
had signed a treaty with Turkey accepting her suzerainty over his
country. She contends that the ‘Saudi archives have failed to yield
any text of a perfected Saudi-Turkish agreement’ of this sort. How­
ever, she admits that there were negotiations between Ibn Sa'ud and
the Turks during 1914, the aim of which was to reach a reasonable
settlement on outstanding problems between Ibn Sa'ud and Turkey.
But those negotiations in which, she says, the question of Turkish
suzerainty over Arabia was mooted, had never been formulated into
an agreement.3
1Thc British Government’s legal argument is fully expounded in an aide-
memoire, dated 25 July 1950, which was delivered to the Saudi Government. It
runs as follows:
‘According to International Law, His Majesty King Abdul Aziz A1 Saud is the
successor authority of the Turkish Government, to which His Majesty acknow­
ledged his dependence in the treaty of 15 May 1914, with that Government. The
Turkish Government, by signing the Anglo-Turkish Conventions of 1913 and 1914,
acknowledged that their authority in Arabia did not extend cast of the lines laid
down in these Conventions. His Majesty cannot, therefore, base a claim to terri­
tory lying east of these lines on any event or circumstances existing prior to the
conclusion of the Conventions. If, then, His Majesty desires to establish a claim to
any such area, it is for him to prove that since 1914 he has acquired sovereignty
in that area in accordance with Tnternational Law and for this purpose to put
forward any facts and events subsequent to that date on which he relics to support
his claim.’ See British Memorial, II, Annex D, No. 30.
2 British Memorial, I, p. 80. For the full text of the 1914 treaty, see ibid., II,
Annex A, No. 8.
3 In conversations held between Shaikh Yusuf Yasin and Mr Rcndcl on 19 March
1937, the former stated the Saudi Government’s view on the treaty of 15 May 1914
as follows:
‘There does not exist any treaty at all recognised by His Majesty (to this effect).
If there exist some copies of letters these papers arc perhaps not authentic. I have