"ملف 19/243 IV الزبارة" [و‎‎١‎٣‎٤] (٣٢٢/٢٦٧)

My dear Friend,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your Highness
letter of the 24th June 1948 on the subject of Zubarah and to
reply as follows:
2* I have personally studied the history of this case and
know how deeply your Highness feels about It. I cannot, however,
refrain ^rom pointing out that repeatedly over many years, you
and your predecessors have been Informed that His Majesty's
Government could not recognise any right of the Huler of Bahrain
to interfere on the mainland, and, in particular, that his claims
to Zubarah could not be supported. I am glad to see that your
Highness, in the letter that you have addressed to me, hcs
specifically renounced any claim to sovereignty over Zubarah.
You allege that the Shaikh of Qatar is not carrying out
the agreement which he made with you in 1944 through the good
offices of H.B.M* s Political Agent and ask that he should be
I ■ B I '
compelled to do so. From the reports I have received on this
subject it would appear that your Highness and the Shaikh of Qatar
each interpret the agreement in a different manner, that the
agreement is so worded that it is difficult to say which inter
pretation is correct and that it is not clear that the Shaikh of
Qatar has broken the agreement according to his interpretation of
it. Though in these circumstances it is difficult to charge
him with a breach of the agreement I am naturally disturbed that
bad relations should exist between two such loyal friends of the
British Government as your Highness and Shaikh Abdullah, and am
most anxious that the dispute between you should be settled in an
amicable manner. I am accordingly instructing my officers to
do everything they can with this object in view. At the same
time I would point out that your Highness and Shaikh Abdullah are
both equally entitled to His Majesty's Government 1 s protection
and that His Majesty's Government cannot favour one as against
the other. In particular the sovereignty of th^ A1 Thani
family over the whole of the Qatar peninsula has been recognised
for many years by His Majesty's Government and Shaikh Abdullah
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