HC Deb 17 June 1959 vol 607 cc424-6
23. Mr. P. Noel-Baker

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs when he last asked the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to consider agreeing that outstanding disputes with Saudi Arabia should be submitted to the International Court of Justice for decision.

24. Mr. Healey

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will now seek the agreement of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to submitting the Buraimi dispute to the International Court of Justice.

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

On 11th May, in reply to a supplementary question from the right hon. Member, my hon. Friend said that the attention of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman would doubtless be called to the question of reference to the International Court. We have been in communication with the Political Residency in Bahrain about this matter and are awaiting its reply. The Sultan has made clear on several occasions in the past his unfavourable attitude towards the submission of this dispute to an outside authority.

Mr. Noel-Baker

Are Her Majesty's Government ready to arbitrate these disputes if the Sultan agrees?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

It is not a matter for us. This is a matter which concerns the sovereign Government of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman.

Mr. Noel-Baker

In view of the fact that over the last four years we have on a number of occasions used our troops and our air forces to support the Sultan, surely he will listen to our wishes about a matter of arbitration.

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

From consultations that we have had with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, I do not think that that follows.

Mr. Healey

Will the Minister of State assure the House and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman that Britain cannot accept any obligation to support the Sultan's claims by military or political methods to this or any other area unless we ourselves and the world are first satisfied as a result of submission to an impartial international authority that those claims are justified?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

The hon. Member will be aware of what happened on the last occasion when this matter was referred to an outside body. There was extreme bribery and corruption of the witnesses. In view of that, the Sultan does not think that outside bodies are very good at arbitrating these issues.

Mr. Wall

Will my right hon. Friend say whether he received any approaches, either official or unofficial, from the Saudi Arabian Government on this question?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

None, Sir.

Mr. Bevan

Are we to take the position to be that the Sultan, to use the right hon. Gentleman's language, exercises his sovereign rights in a certain way and that having done so, he gets himself into trouble and we then send British soldiers to get him out of it?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

I did not imply that at all.