Correspondence relating to the Bahra Agreement. MEMORANDUM Presented by His Highness the Sultan of Nejd after the sixth meeting to Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary. TRANSLATION. 1st Rabi' Thani 1344 (19th October, 1925). I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that the Government of Nejd are still of opinion that it is necessary to examine the possibility of extraditing criminals, in the hope of ensuring peace on the frontier and of preventing all disturbers of the peace effectively. My insistence in this matter is due to the particular experience I have, and to my knowledge of desert conditions. My first object is to prevent any rivalry or friction from arising between the two Governments, and in this I am actuated by three main motives : (a) religion and honour, which compel us to act truthfully and in keeping with our pledges; (b) our special ties of friendship with His Majesty's Government, which make it incumbent upon us to take a far-sighted view; (c) our desire to live in peace, quiet and amity with our neighbours the State of 'Iraq. 2. I am of opinion that the Agreement which you presented for discussion this morning, although it may achieve some of the purposes for which we strive, does yet leave the door open to a great number of troublesome incidents of a kind of which we have had cause to complain in the past. In particular, I have submitted to you the following incidents as being of the kind which habitually occur in life in the desert :- (a) what should the attitude of the Nejd Government be if an 'Iraqi tribe, having committed a reprehensible crime involving killing and plunder, were to take refuge in Nejd; and what would the same Government's attitude be if that refugee tribe were to commit the same crime, notwithstanding guarantees being taken from it; (b) what should the attitude of each of the Governments of 'Iraq and of Nejd be if a Nejd tribe, having been punished by the Nejd Government for a raid into 'Iraq, were to take refuge into 'Iraq and then to raid Nejd from 'Iraq, as was done by those tribes who had taken refuge with Nejd and then gone over to 'Iraq, after the well-known incidents connected with Yusuf Sa'dun? I beg that you will examine these questions carefully. After considerable experience, I see no effective way of circumventing the trouble other than that Nejd and 'Iraq should both admit the principle of the surrender of criminals, and that criminals having perpetrated a crime in their country should be prevented from seeking refuge into the other country. Measures based on any other principle would not, in my opinion, shut the door on the dissensions of which we all complain; and I ask that this statement of mine should be put on record so that it may be referred to in the future, and so as to set my conscience at rest in case such incidents, of the kind which we deplore and would prevent with all our efforts, were to recur. Usual respects. (Sealed) 'ABDU'L-‘Aziz ibn ‘AbdU'R-RAHMAN IBN SA'UD. Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary, to His Highness 'Abdu'l-'Aziz ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies. YOUR HIGHNESS, Bahra Camp, 20th October, 1925. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of Your Highness' communication of 1st Rabi' Thani (19th October, 1925), and I note that Your Highness is of opinion that no agreement is likely to establish security on the frontier and put a stop to raiding which is not based on the principle that either Government at the request of the other Government should return, if necessary by force, any tribes or portions of tribes which may cross over into its territory. 2. As I have repeatedly informed Your Highness in our conversations, the 'Iraq Government is unable to subscribe to this principle, which it deems contrary to Arab traditions and impracticable of execution. I have also informed Your Highness that His Majesty's Government, after careful consideration of the facts and of the views put forward by Your Highness and on your behalf in the past, have reached the same conclusion. That being so, I regret that I am unable to adopt the principle which you recommend. 3. On the other hand, I would point out to Your Highness that the draft Agreement which I presented to you recently goes far towards meeting your own views in the matter, and that in drafting it I have endeavoured as far as possible to reconcile conflicting opinions. It is based on what, in the view of His Majesty's Government, is just and fair to 'Iraq and Nejd and to the tribes concerned; and I feel sure that, provided it is loyally carried out, peace and stability on the border ought to prevail, and that any disputes arising from the aggressions of tribes, even in such complicated instances as those mentioned by Your Highness, will be capable of settlement without real difficulty by the two Governments of ‘Iraq and Nejd acting in sincere co-operation. 4. With regard to Your Highness' misgivings as to the efficacy of an agreement such as I have proposed, I rely with full confidence on Your Highness' repeated assurances of good-will and sincere desire for peace and order on the frontier. I have, etc., GILBERT CLAYTON. Bahra, 31st October, 1925. Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary, to His Highness 'Abdu'l-'Aziz ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its YOUR HIGHNESS, Dependencies. I have the honour to recall that in one of our recent conversations I spoke to Your Highness about the necessity of settling the question of loot and losses resulting from past raids by tribes from 'Iraq and Nejd, and we agreed that it would be necessary to lay down general principles and formulate a procedure for the satisfactory settlement of this question. 2. In accordance with our agreement, Taufiq Bey Suwaidi, the 'Iraq representative, has discussed the question with Sheikh Hafiz and Sheikh Yusuf, and they have come to a preliminary agreement on the subject. I have the honour, therefore, to request that Your Highness may, if you see fit, signify to me your concurrence in the following proposals :— (a) That the 'Uqair Conference should be taken as the starting point for reckoning the losses claimed respectively by 'Iraq and Nejd on account of the raids which have taken place between that Conference and the date of ratification by the 'Iraq Government of the Bahra Agreement. (b) That the tribunal provided for in Article 2 of the Bahra Agreement should be charged with the task of enquiring into the claims of both sides and of assessing compensation due for the losses resulting from raids taking place during the abovementioned period, without prejudice to the other duties which this tribunal will have to perform in the future. (c) That this tribunal should be assembled and should meet within a period not exceeding six months from the date of the ratification of the Bahra Agreement by the Government of 'Iraq in accordance with their constitutional laws. I have, etc., GILBERT CLAYTON. His Highness 'Abdu'l-'Aziz ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Saʻud, Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies, to Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary. 14th Rabi' Thani 1344 (1st November, 1925). Respects. I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 31st October, 1925, relating to losses and loot. I fully endorse the agreement arrived at between Sheikh Hafiz Wahba and Sheikh Yusuf Yasin and Taufiq Bey Suwaidi. Compliments. (Sealed) 'ABDU'l-‘Aziz ibn ‘AbDU'R-RAHMAN IBN Sa‘UD. Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary, to His Highness 'Abdu'l-'Aziz ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies. Bahra Camp, 1st November, 1925. YOUR HIGHNESS, I have the honour to inform Your Highness that I am instructed by His Majesty's Government that the Agreement which has been concluded between Your Highness and myself in regard to certain frontier questions which were outstanding between the Governments of Nejd and of 'Iraq, and which was duly signed on the 1st November, 1925, cannot become operative until it has been formally ratified by the Government of 'Iraq. The Agreement will be transmitted without delay by His Majesty's Government to the Government of 'Iraq with a request for early ratification, and the date of that ratification will be notified in due course by His Majesty's Government to Your Highness as the date on which the aforesaid Agreement will come into operation. I shall be grateful if Your Highness will kindly acknowledge receipt of this letter. I have, etc., GILBERT CLAYTON. His Highness Sultan 'Abdu'l-Aziz ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman al-Faisal Al Sa'ud, Sultan of Nejd and its Dependencies, to Sir Gilbert Clayton, K.B.E., etc., His Britannic Majesty's Commissioner and Plenipotentiary. TRANSLATION. 15th Rabi' Thani 1344 (2nd November, 1925). YOUR EXCELLENCY, Respects. I beg to acknowledge your letter dated 1st November, 1925, relating to the date on which the 'Iraq-Nejd Agreement is to come into force, and to say that this has been noted. Respects. (Sealed) ‘ABDU'L-‘Aziz Ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman ibn Sa ́ud. Printed under the authority of HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, (177) Wt. 20614/1558 1.125 1/26 S.E R., Ltd. Gp. 56 |