'File 82/27 III (F 84) APOC: Qatar Oil' [‎236r] (477/638)

1766/279/91.
- 'OKiaGN omca, ,. .1.
Hist darah X934.
My dear Gilbert,
You will rnue-iber my tellln.; y.u tMa morning
that I was u little uneasy on one point in connexion with
the queatlon of uhe v v ata.r "boundaries; i #e • lest we should
liaTt; our position witn Xbn Saud in re .•••card to the
blue line oy our failure to , ; ;ive him copias of the An,;lo
Turkish Convent ions ol' 1913 and 1914 establishing; that line,
when| in he as-^ed us (see Sir U• Clayton 1 8 report
ol June bth 19^?, ox vcnich v/e sent you a copy in our
letter Mo^585/119/ 91 ox July 7 l^E?) x'or "copies of all
existing treaties and a t ;ree .Uients between Uis .. ajosty 1 s
Government and the vaiious rulers and ohieie in . rabia and
on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ".
^ it had occurred to lae that Xbn Saud mi^ht well
contend that hie object in asking us Tor thuse documents
was in order to know exactly how he stood with regard bo
our claims and position generally in Arabia, and that the
fact that we did not co iiuiuxu cate to hiia the treaty
instruments laying down the olue line left nia free to ignore
that line if he wished to# lie could probably argue that he
had no knowledge of the Anjlo '.Curaish Conventio.is or at any
rate of the ratification of the laU Convention, and that as
nobody appeared to have established any effective claim to
the hinterland of 4atar to the east of the blue line, he was
perfectly free in the absence of any warning to the contrary
from us or from the Sheikh of ..atar to establish Akhwan
Colonies there and generally bring this area under his
authority if he wished to do so.
X have now referred the point to Malkin and am gl^d
to say that he does not taice this risk vei-y seriously,
^is view, when Ibn Saud asked for "copies £t all existing
treaties/
SSQ..,