'Right of H.M.G. to contract engagements on behalf of the Arab Sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf in International Agreements' [‎3r] (5/6)

Jil i !lj.x 1
I have ooon shovn the inciiu Jfiico filo regarding the position of
oho Persian G-ulf ^heikhdohis undor the Chicu^o a_r Ci.^r&ei.i^n'tj and
-understand that I am invited to comment on tUis subject,
i would have pr^fe^ruu to defer couiment until I had access to
my ovvn records, out my personal views, for v;hat they .,o worth, are
as follows.
Final Act oi the Conference it itj apparently assuied under
:ecommendation 1 of section VIII read w..th xirticle VIII Section 2 of
Appendix 1 j that His aje ty's Government have ac<-]u_:ved tiio right to
dispose of the Shaikhdom.s interests in Aivil Aviation, I sub. dt that
th^-re is no foundation for tliis view,
3. I will take the otates in detail,
X'iist, as regards the Trucial i^haiklis - tlivj viis pr^su -bly based on
tae exclusive c 'oaties oi the 6th arch, 1892^ These treaties, however
do no c cede us any authority to gran', concessions to foreigners without
ruioronce to the rulers, and the S-iaikhs would certainly not in^arprot
their agreements in this way. The rulers arc, of coui'sc, well a\vare
0; ^ rights, and it will "be rocalled that we had the greatest
difficulty in securing our own original air rights for ourselves,'
j .ho Civj .i Air agreements with Sharjah and Debai give us no support as
they are purely ad hoc arrangements for the benefit of B,O.A.C,
-•-'•-la'am. Here again our position is pi-esumably based on the
excluoxve j.reacies ci the 2. !nd jjecerabcr, 1880, arid the 13th March, 1892,
ihese creaties ho'jever are purely negative. The ohaikh binds himself
no u bo enter into any agreement with foreign powers, but he does not
gi\e as c a co blanche co act for him and in the past he has always been
consulin advance v.lio.o his interests "v^cre afiected. In addition
thu Civil Air agreement expressly?" provides that we will not allow
foreign aix cr .i t to use iiahi^a.-U aerodrome without the ^haiiiho consent,
and this completely estops any claim on oui' part,
3* K iJoai i, . Hero the exclusive treaty oi 1899 is less emphatic than
that oi Bahrain and the Siiailcli is not precluded from correspondence
•■ich ioieign powers, iiis Civil xiir Agreei^ent is equally definite and
precludes Ub frori alleging foreign aircraft to use thu aerodro. \e or
aorodro! ics without the shaikhs consent. In other words tiio oliaildi
expressly retains (and has been allowed by us to retain) thu ower to
permit foreign aircraft to use his utate,
0 • c,isc I xi. cat I understand th t it has beuii accepted that
the jultan is not bound by thu Chicago ..greepunt aid the question of
□ringing him into the picture is being i^ursuuci separately,
7. ./here we give advance intimation of our require ents to G-ulf otatus,
iko it clear to txium th; t their interu. ts ar^ boii^j safeguarded, and take
carc no to offend their susceptibilities, then it is usually possible
to obtain our requirements without difficulty. If this is not done the
Political officer's task ib rendered immeasurably more difficult and a
molehi-.l may easily turn into a mountain. In this case I myself had
not seen a copy of the agreement until a week or so ago, it must be
remembered that our position in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. has no other foundation
t.ian the good".ill of the states and can easily be undermined if this
is once lost.