§ 7. Mr. Fitzroy Macleanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what is the policy of His Majesty's Government with regard to the southern portion of the Sinai Peninsula, which under the Agreement of 1906 remained part of Turkey and was taken from Turkey by British forces during the 1914–18 war, and has never been formally allocated to Egypt.
§ Mr. Ernest DaviesThe grant of the right to administer this territory was confirmed by a firman issued by the Sultan 1264 of Turkey to the Khedive Abbas of Egypt on 8th May, 1892, and was later enshrined in Notes exchanged between His Majesty's Government and the Turkish Government in May, 1906. The eastern frontier of Egypt was never explicitly defined after the. First World War, when Egypt became an independent kingdom and by the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey renounced all rights and titles to territories lying outside her frontiers. Egypt has, however, been in continuous occupation and possession of South Sinai ever since 1922. No Government has ever contested the fact that Egypt exercises effective sovereignty over this area.
§ Mr. MacleanIs it not a fact that this area was taken away by us from Turkey, that it has never been given to Egypt and, therefore, belongs to us as much as to anybody else?
§ Mr. DaviesPrior to our taking it away from Turkey, it was administered by Egypt, and continued to be administered by Egypt following the Treaties of Peace after the 1914–18 war.
§ Mr. MacleanSurely the mere tact of administration does not confer sovereignty.