'File 10/3 VI Qatar Oil Concession' [‎85v] (182/481)

Iv Uji-
iil|;
40
II.—P oints of S pecial I nterest.
225. The following are certain of the main points of interest in this
connection :—
(A) Policy of H.M. Government 1800-1934.
(B) Extent to which H.M. Government are committed by Treaty engagements
with the Wahabis : 1800-1934.
(C) Status of the Trucial Sheikhs and their relation to the Wahabis : 1800
to 1934.
(D) Extent of Wahabi control in the area to the east of Nejd : 1800 to 1934.
(E) History and position of Baraimi: 1800 to 1934.
(F) Extent to which Ibn Saud and the Wahabi Amirs in the pre-War period
were Turkish subjects or vassals.
(G) The legal position.
(A) Policy of H.M. Government, 1800-1934.
226. It will be seen that from 1800 to 1920 the policy of H.M.
Government on the Arab littoral of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. was consistently to avoid
any interference in the affairs of the hinterland. In the early part of this period
they were solely concerned to make the seas safe for commerce; to put down
piracy; and at a slightly later stage to suppress the slave trade. As time went on
and the strategic importance of the Gulf area, particularly from the Indian stand
point, became greater, they consolidated their relations with the rulers of Bahrein,
Koweit, Qatar, and Muscat, and with the Trucial Sheikhs.
227. Their relations with the Wahabi Amirs in the period 1800 to 1870 were
on all fours with their relations with the other rulers of this area. Once the
Wahabi Amirs established themselves on the sea coast they became a matter of
concern to H.M. Government, who were, however, content to abstain from all
interference with their activities in the hinterland save to the extent that these
might react on the position of the other maritime rulers of the Trucial area and so
lead to piratical outbreaks, the revival of slavery, or the absorption of Muscat or
Bahrein. They had no treaty relations with the Wahabi Amirs, and their com
munications with them (apart from formal representations or demands for
reparation for injuries committed at their instigation or by their subjects or
vassals) were confined to polite exchanges of letters. The one formal engagement
given in the period 1800 to 1870 is a unilateral undertaking given on behalf of
the Wahabi Amir in 1866 (paragraph 118 above).
228. From 1870 to 1901 H.M. Government pursued their policy of con
solidating their position on the littoral. In the period 1901 to 1913 they
repeatedly refused to involve themselves in liabilities towards Ibn Saud. In 1913
they reached an agreement with Turkey in which the eastern boundaries of
Turkish influence in Arabia were delimited. Their endeavours at the outbreak of
the Great War to secure the co-operation of Ibn Saud against the Turks were
successful, and in 1915 they concluded a treaty with him as an independent ruler,
under which he undertook to respect the territories of their Arab allies.
229. Supplementary agreements were concluded with Ibn Saud after the
war to regulate the boundaries of Koweit and Iraq, and the treaty of 1915 was
replaced in 1927 by one less favourable to H.M. Government. Since 1925 the
growing power of Ibn Saud and the reassertion of Persian influence by sea, the
development of air communications, the transfer of the air route to India and
the Last to the Arab littoral of the Gulf, the discovery of oil on that littoral, and
the fact that international oil agreements make it difficult to exclude foreign
exploitation, have combined to make it necessary to take a more active interest in
the affairs of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , and more difficult to ignore the position in its
hinterland; in the case of Qatar it has been necessary in the interests of securing
that any oil concession granted shall be under British influence to offer the Sheikh
guarantees of protection by land; and the importance of setting a limit to Wahabi
expansion in the hinterland has been held to justify the positive challenge to the
position of Ibn Saud represented by the intimation to him that the Blue^ Line of
the 1913 Convention is his Eastern boundary.
i