'Negotiations with Ibn Saud regarding Boundaries of Saudi Arabia' [‎7r] (13/40)

Confidential
11 / 36 / 50 .
British Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,
Doha,
3rd June 1950.
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2. I was informed by Mansour bin Khal^lr; the Comnany ex
guide, who is himself Sheikh of the Shahajpin section of the Bari
Hajir, that the men concerned were Sa^udfis, Mansour is a -well-
disposed character, and I have alw^y§ found his information on
the subject of the Bedu accurate ivhere I have been able to check^^
it, and convincing even where f have not. (See my ll/l3/49~^f
24th September and ll/ie/49 of 5th October last to Jakins. I
have subsequently had other occasions to approach Mansour for
j oririat ion.) His information in this case id corroborated by
the Sheikh himself. Evans reports that on one occasion when he
was complaining about the uselessness of the guards in general
and the Umm Sa»id guards in particular, the Sheikh said that
if the Company did not want them he would send them all away, as
they were all Sa'udis anyway. The Bani Ahmad have also several
times told me that the Sheikh was afraid of his Bedu, as they
were under Ibn Sa'ud’s protection and would appeal .to him.
S
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3. There seem to be two separate problems here. The fisst
is that for some reason the Sheikh recruited most of the Company
guards from Bedu who did not belong to Qatar, and the second id"
the Bani Ahmad’s allegation that the Sheikh's own Fidawi are not
completely loyal. The first point does not seem to be in dispute,
- my Abu Rashid tells me that the guards who were at Umm Sa'id
under the Emir Ahmad were Manasir, Ihbab (from Oman) Munra, and
Mi^eria' (also from Oman) together with a few non-Bedu Qataris.
He says that those at Dukhan were mostly Qatari hangers-on of the
Emir Jasim, but that the Bedu elements amongst them were Ihbab
and Mahara (from Dhofar) . I do not know what was the reason
which prompted Sheikh Abdullah to this course originally, but I
do not tnink that the point is now of great importance, as the
guards in question are now rapidly dwindling, and should soon
vanish altogether.
4. The more serious question is the extent to which the
Ruler ofi Qatar has any grip on even those who are commonly ac
counted his "own" Bedu. The Bani Hajir, wh6 are the largest
indigenous body of Bedu, and who are described by Lorimer as
"properly belonging to Qatar" in didtinction to those who merely
visit 'seasonally, are in fact divided between Qatar and Sa'udi
Araoia. ThgUg ^ are two sections in Qatar, who presumably acknow -
ledge the Ruler of Qatar as their overlord, but the third and *
largest section, the A1 Mohammed, are said to be with bin Jiluwi
and never to come to Qatar. Their chief is Mohammed bin 'Ayid,
and they are estimated to be bigger than either ofl the two Qatari
sections, but not as big as the two of them combined. The biggest-
of the sections in Qatar is the A1 Khayarin, led by Sheikh Ghanim
bi n Sa if, who is now very old, and lives with Sheikh^bduTlSTaF
Riyan. His son Abdullah is the individual mentioned in paragraph
3 of my 11/18/49, who lives in Hassan's house, between the Palace
at Doha and the proposed site of the permanent Agenisy building.
He is one of the most unprepossessing rogues it is possible to
imagine. With Mohammed biin Sa'id, the subject of Jakins»s c/q-53
You \
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IS3Z.
of 22nd Sentember 1949 to me./
C.J. Pelly Esq. QBE.,
H.M. 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. ,
Bahrain. S’. '* •? / ,