File 2794/1921 Pt 1 'Persian Gulf: oil' [‎302r] (605/650)

subsidiary company to bo styled n The Arab Coast Oil V '-~^
Company", or "The Arabian Oil Company",
I pro sumo the same Company would prospect all down the
Arabian Littoral and Oman, so perhaps it might be styled
"The Eastern Arabian Oil Company", unless operating all
over Arabia in which case "The Arabian Oil Company? or
’’The Anglo-Arabian Oil Company" would be better*
4. As regards Muscat, i±3± the present Council of Ministers
is very amenable, and I think that if they were sounded
by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. on the subject we should find that
*
no objection would be likely^ that negociations might be
opened at once with the iruscat Government* But as the
Government of India are aware the writ of the Muscat
Government does not carry far beyond the coast, e<nd Irhat
view the Imam and the Omanis would take is difficult to
say. I am enquiring from the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. who has just
returned to Hoadquarters if he can give any idea on this
point* *
5. In respect of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , I would observe that
the Sheikhs and Tribes of this part of the world are
extraordinarily ignorant and backward, and I think that a
sudden request for exclusive prospecting rights would be
regarded with the greatest suspicion and would meet with
determi&l opposition in all the Sheikhdoms*
* these
I think it would be best in the case of/sheikhs to
endeavour, in the first instance to obtain Conventions
similar to thoso made with Kuwait and Bahrain, and later on
to try for concession if the Anglo-persian Oil Company
after prospecting in the neighbouring countries thought
it worth while to prospect on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. . With
the exception of the Sheikh of Abu fartnc Dhabi the Trucial
Coast Sheikhs have only a narrow strip of sandy soil between
the Oman Hills and the sea; whether this is likely to
contain oil or not of course I cannot say, but I should thin!
prospecting there might well be left to the last*
6. I agree with His Excellency the High Commissioner that