Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, The Near and Middle East, Volume IX, Part 2

Presidential Correspondence, lot 66 D 204, “King Saud/Eisenhower”

No. 1519
King Ibn Saud to President Eisenhower¹

secret

Riyadh, June 28, 1953.

I have received Your Excellency’s communication dated June 15, 1953² which was delivered to me by the American Ambassador, Mr. Raymond Hare. I am grateful for your interest and appreciate your sentiments and assurances. While I was preparing the reply to Your Excellency, I received this morning from my Amir in Buraimi a report that on Saturday morning, June 27, 1953, seven British armored cars, accompanied by British bombers, attacked a station of the Beni Kab Tribe, who are our subjects. The planes bombed the people’s homes with women and children inside the houses. The armored cars fired their machine guns, and this armed aggression continued for seven hours, during which a number of people were killed.

Afterwards, the commander of the British Forces sent to the chief of the tribe a warning that, if there was not a complete surrender in fifteen hours, the commander would burn all the houses with their people.

A series of British aggressive acts against our subjects have been made in that area. The United States has been informed of these through our Ambassador in Washington and through the American Ambassador in Jidda. One of the most horrible of the recent British acts of aggression was when they detained certain numbers of the people in the burning sun without water, humiliating them for committing no crime except having called on our Amir.

Such abominable crimes are committed by the British authorities at the time when they have agreed to solve the dispute through arbitration in accordance with the recommendation of the US Government, and after an agreement in principle for such arbitration had already been reached with the British Government. All that I ask is that we and Britain be on an equal footing in the disputed area until after the conclusion of the arbitration. But the only reply made by Mr. Churchill to my request for the establishment of such equality was nothing more than another series of aggressive actions by the British authorities, the last of which was this savage attack against our subjects. The only suggestion made by Sir Winston Churchill to reach equality was a proposal to withdraw our Amir in Buraimi with his employees who are all civilians and do not exceed forty.

Since all my peaceful efforts with the British Government have resulted in nothing more than these aggressive acts and, depending upon the assurances embodied in your letter and your adhering to your undertakings, I ask Your Excellency to mediate in order to stop this aggression by any way which you believe would be effective in preventing it. I am certain that Your Excellency, in your capacity as President of the United States, will not fail to find an effective means to fulfill your undertakings and to solve this problem peacefully.

With my regards to Your Excellency,³

1. This message was transmitted to the Department of State in telegram 249 from Dhahran, June 29. It was transmitted to the President on June 30, together with a memorandum by the Secretary of State, dated June 30, not printed. The Secretary’s memorandum stated that the Department had asked the British Embassy and the Consul General in Dhahran for further information, and the Secretary would consult with the President when the information was received. (Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459, “Memorandum for the President, June–December 1953”)
2. Document 1517.
3. No signature on the source text.