§ 2.5 p.m.
§ LORD KILLEARNMy Lords, I beg to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Egyptian title to sovereignty over the whole of the Sinai Peninsula, and especially of its Eastern frontier, has ever been legally verified.]
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (THE MARQUESS OF READING)My Lords, I do not know of any formal legal instrument conferring upon Egypt the sovereignty over the whole of the Sinai Peninsula. On February 21, 1951, it was stated on behalf of the Government of the day, in another place, that
The grant of the right to administer this territory was confirmed by a firman issued by the Sultan of Turkey to the Khedive Abbas of Egypt on May 8, 1892, and was later enshrined in Notes exchanged between Her 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. But by the Treaty of Lausanne Turkey renounced all rights and titles to territories lying outside her frontiers. Egypt has been in continuous occupation and possession of South Sinai ever since 1922 and no Government has ever contested the fact that she exercises effective sovereignty over this area.
§ LORD KILLEARNMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Marquess for his full answer. I wonder whether he could inform me if there is anything published later than the White Paper, Egypt (No. 2), 1906?
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, I cannot inform the noble Lord 1010 off-hand, but, if he wants some light reading for his leisure moments, I can make inquiries and write To him as to whether any such document exists.
§ LORD KILLEARNMy Lords, I should like to thank the noble Marquess for his noble offer. I have just one further question: whether this doubtful title has any bearing whatever as regards the status of this area and the Israeli inroad into Sinai?
THE MARQUESS OF READINGMy Lords, I did not say that the title was doubtful; I said that there was not an actual document regulating it. But I should have thought that the prescriptive rights acquired by Egypt over this long period of time really put any question of doubt on the aspect of sovereignty out of controversy.
§ LORD KILLEARNI thank the noble Marquess.