'File 82/27 III (F 84) APOC: Qatar Oil' [‎102r] (201/638)

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Mote of aiscussion with Sir Percy Cox on 20tli February
on question ol Ipounaarles oi QATAR .
Consequent on the recent investigations into the
Southern boundary of ^atar Sir Percy Gox was good enough
to come to the Inaia Office on 20th February to discuss
the conversations reported in Goionel Dickson's despatch,
Confidential No.143 of 4th July, to have taken place
between 3ir Percy, Ibn 3a ua ana Major Holmes, in
November/December 1922.
2. Sir Percy Cox saia tnat he had kept no private notes
as to what .passea at nis xiieeting witn Ion Saud on the
occasion in question. Anything he had reported or
recorded on the subject would have been left on the
record at Baghdad; but to the best of his recollection
ana belief the facts ana circumstances were as follows;
The specific object with which, accompanied by Iraq
representatives ? he went to meet Ibn Saua at OJair was to
induce him to ratify the Mohammerah Agreement of 5th fey
1922. sir Percy proceeded to the rendezvous without any
knowledge that he woula there meet iviajor Holmes or would
have occasion to express any opinion as to the boundaries
of the (^atar Peninsula; but learning from Iviajor Holmes,
ana from the map that he produced, that he was endeavour
ing to obtain from Ibn Sau^ a concession for exploiting
oil in an area wnich included the Qatar Peninsula, he
(Sir Percy Gox) naturally informed Major Holmes - and no
aouot Ibn Saud also - that this could not be. If he
had then been asked, as he doubtless must have been,
what he considered shoula be excluded, as constituting
Qatar, sir Percy woula undoubtedly have based his answer
on his own knowledge, as Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. for
many years; namely, that, on the east coast, Qatar's
boundary/