"ملف 10/3 VI الامتياز النفطي بقطر" [و‎‎٨‎٣] (٤٨١/١٧٧)

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41
1922-1934.
Representations by the Sheikh of Qatar, 1921-22.
Ihn Saud warned to respect Qatar, 1922.
200. In 1921 the Sheikh of Qatar represented that he was alarmed lest
some of his townspeople should become Akhwan and join Ibn Saud, and enquired
whether H.M. Government would assist him should he be attacked from the
interior. He was informed that H.M. Government were not prepared to promise p.g. 13.
more than diplomatic assistance should Ibn Saud attack him. Late in 1922 he
intimated that, while he did not fear an open attack by Ibn Saud so long as the
latter remained on good terms with H.M. Government, he was seriously concerned
by the more subtle methods employed, he alleged, by the Nejd authorities to
undermine his position. The Resident suggested that a hint might be given to
Ibn Saud to keep his people in order, but no action was taken on this
proposal. In November-December 1922 Sir Percy Cox, finding that Ibn Saud
proposed to include the whole of the peninsula of Qatar in a concession for oil in
the Hasa district which was then under consideration, intimated to him that this
could not be accepted and that he had nothing to do with Qatar except to respect
it under the terms of his Treaty with us, and insisted on the limitation of his
discussions to country west of the longitude of Salwa Bay. Sir P. Cox is stated
by Lt.-Colonel H. R. P. Dickson, who was present, to have drawn on a map a line
running from Djau-ed-Dukhan to Dohat-as-Salwa, which, he indicated, must
represent the Eastern boundary of any concession granted by Ibn Saud in respect
of Hasa. The Sultan accepted this injunction without argument. The line in
question, it may be remarked, cuts across the Blue Line, which was never men
tioned in the discussions. Sir Percy Cox has ^ince stated that, to the best of his
recollection, nothing took place in his discussion with Ibn Saud which would
prevent His Majesty's Government from claiming the Blue Line as the eastern
boundary of Saudi Arabia.
Reassertion of Wahahi influence in Trucial Oman and at Baraimi, 1922-34.
201. In 1922, when Sheikh Sultan bin Zaid murdered and succeeded his
brother, the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, he found that the authority of his family in
Baraimi, where it had been predominant since 1870, had fallen to a low ebb; and
the Beni Naim of Baraimi were engaged in conflicts with Abu Dhabi. In June
1925 it was reported that the Awamir and the Dam had appealed to the Wahabi
Amir of Hasa to protect them f rom Abu Dhabi, and in the same month it was
reported that the Amir had sent an official to collect zakat in the Baraimi oasis,
who was generally, but not invariably successful. This official also arrested and
hanged a Hasawi refugee in Baraimi and notified the Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi and
Debai that the Amir of Hasa had taken the Awamir and Daru tribes, who were
fundamentally Muscat subjects, under the protection of the Sultan of Nejd.
Anti-Wahahi combinations in Oman, 1925.
202. In July 1925 it appeared that the Sheikhs of the Beni Naim, Beni
Khatib and the Beni Kaab had been negotiating with Shargah for mutual assist
ance in the event of aggression by the Wahabis, and in August 1925, after a
conference between Debai and the Imam of the fanatical Ibadhi tribes of the
hinterland of Muscat, it was agreed that the two should support one another
against the Wahabis.
Further Wahahi activity, 1925-26.
^03. In December 1925 a letter received by the Sheikh of Debai from the Amir
Hasa contained a serious threat against the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. In February
1926 the Amir of Hasa appears to have sent police to Shargah in pursuit of a Nejdi
criminal. He was not found there and the police proceeded to Ajman and
^as al Khaimah. The man escaped detection. It was reported at the same time
that Nejdi slavetraders were bringing negroes and war captives to the coastal
0wns for sale, and that the Trucial Sheikhs Avere afraid to interfere with them.
H.C.,
Bagdad, to
G. of I.,
19.1.23.
I.O. Pol.
Dept. Memo.
B. 430/P.Z.
614/34.
Pol. Res.
to C.O.,
9.6.26.
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