Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, lot 64 D 199, “Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation, January–April 1953”
No. 1505
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Officer in Charge of Arabian Peninsula–Iraq Affairs (Fritzlan)
Subject:
- Call of Prince Faisal, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, on the Under Secretary on March 3, 1953.
Participants:
- Prince Faisal
- The Under Secretary
- Sheikh Asad Al Faqih, Saudi Arabian Ambassador
- Sheikh Ibrahim Suleiman, Prince Faisal’s Chief of Cabinet
- Sheikh Ali Alireza, Prince Faisal’s Personal Assistant
- Mr. A. David Fritzlan,NE
Prince Faisal called with his entourage on General Smith on March 3 ostensibly to become better acquainted with the Under Secretary. Actually his call lasted almost two hours and various items of business were raised.
After the usual complimentary exchanges, during which General Smith recalled his meeting with Prince Faisal in North Africa during World War II, the Prince referred to his reception by the President and his call on the Secretary the previous day. He requested General Smith’s permission to go into details concerning certain of the matters discussed with the Secretary. Questions covered were:
- 1)
- President Truman’s letter to King Ibn Saud of October 31, 1950. The Prince expressed the hope that the terms of this letter would be reaffirmed and, if possible, strengthened by the new administration.
- 2)
- Economic and Military Aid to Saudi Arabia. Such aid had been promised Saudi Arabia but had not yet materialized. It was hard for Saudi Arabia to understand such action from such a close friend as the United States.
- 3)
- Border Disputes with the British in the Persian Gulf Area. Prince Faisal went into the question of King Ibn Saud’s relations with the Sultanate of Muscat and the Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms (the latter being under British protection) at great length. He mentioned that relations between the King and the Sultan and the Sheikhs had been very friendly and no disputes on boundaries had arisen until 1935 shortly after the discovery of oil in the area. Procedures had been put into effect to resolve these boundary differences [Page 2521] and undoubtedly discussions which had taken place would have made progress had the Saudi Arabians been able to deal directly with the Sheikhs rather than through the British who harbored aggressive designs in the area. In this connection, the Prince made the extraordinary statement that at various times the Sheikhs had expressed their allegiance to King Ibn Saud. A problem of a different type arose over the oasis of Buraimi, situated in the eastern part of Arabia on the borders of the territory of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. The Prince stated that the inhabitants of the oasis, owing allegiance to King Ibn Saud, had requested the King to send a Governor in order to settle certain matters in the area. This was done in August 1952 and the British, allegedly acting for the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi and the Sultan of Muscat sent forces into the area with aggressive and threatening purposes. As a result of Ambassador Hare’s efforts and King Ibn Saud’s goodwill a standstill agreement was reached last October between the British and the Saudis. In an effort to settle the matter fairly and amicably the King had proposed a tripartite plebiscite commission (with Saudi, UK and US representation) to ascertain the wishes of the inhabitants of the oasis. Without rejecting this, the British had made a counter proposal of arbitration. Such a procedure was unacceptable to King Ibn Saud, and he had rejected it because he could not even admit that the area in question was in dispute. While he might agree to abritration in other disputed areas, the Buraimi question was an entirely different one.
Prince Faisal complained that the British had on numerous occasions violated the standstill agreement by arrests and punishment of certain local sheikhs who had cooperated with King Ibn Saud’s representatives, by entry of British-led troops into the area, and by low-flying plane flights designed to intimidate the inhabitants. He hoped the United States as a friend of Saudi Arabia, however, would use its influence to get the British to adhere to the standstill agreement, in order to arrest present deterioration in the situation, and to accept King Ibn Saud’s proposed plebiscite commission. Unless such action were taken soon, he felt the British, who had been mustering troops in Muscat, would march on Buraimi.
General Smith raised certain questions. He wondered how the Buraimi area would be disposed of if it were separated from Saudi Arabia. Prince Faisal replied that the British contended that the area belonged to Abu Dhabi and Muscat and Oman, and reiterated that the Buraimi oasis had always been regarded as Saudi territory and had never been in dispute until last August.
General Smith inquired concerning the alleged violations of the standstill agreement and was told by Mr. Fritzlan that the Department had on record the details of this matter indicating there had been charges and counter-charges on both sides. General Smith further inquired concerning the attitude we had previously taken in this matter, and was informed it had been our hope to play the role [Page 2522] of honest broker between the parties, acting as friends of both sides. We felt that we could not do this while participating in the proposed plebiscite commission and had so stated. After much consideration, we inclined to the view that a dispute of this character could most readily be settled through arbitration and our Ambassador in Jidda had supported this principle in discussions with the Saudi Arabian Government and Under Secretary Bruce early in January had done likewise in a conversation with the Saudi Arabian Ambassador. General Smith alluded to arbitration as a device frequently resorted to in the United States to settle disputes, even on a husband-wife level, and he hoped that King Ibn Saud would not .take a firm position in opposition to it. He felt that the term “arbitration. should be construed in as general a manner as possible in order to get agreement between the parties on some type of procedure to be followed.
Prince Faisal stated that his father had rejected arbitration and he was certain that his position was unchangeable. He had, however, indicated he would welcome a neutral investigatory group into the Buraimi area in order to assess the rights and wrongs as regards alleged violations of the standstill agreement. The British had not responded favorably to this.
General Smith promised to study the boundary question, and in particular the Buraimi problem, very carefully and sympathetically and to consider in what manner the United States could be of greatest possible assistance to its friends. He wondered whether Prince Faisal had thought of meeting with Mr. Eden during his presence in Washington this week. Prince Faisal said he had not, but would be glad to meet with Mr. Eden should Mr. Eden so indicate. General Smith stated that an opportunity might offer during Mr. Eden’s visit for him or the Secretary to go into the Buraimi question informally. He would certainly take advantage of any opportunity to explore Mr. Eden’s latest thoughts on the subject.
General Smith stated that the first two items mentioned by Prince Faisal were under active consideration and would be pursued by him.
With further expressions of goodwill, during which Prince Faisal indicated his entire satisfaction with the reception he had met during his visit in the United States, he and his group departed in the expectation that the Secretary or General Smith would discuss the problems raised by him at a later date.
- This memorandum of conversation was prepared on Mar. 4.↩