'File 38/17 Delimitation of Trucial state boundaries and Petroleum Concession Limited's Concession Areas on the Trucial Coast' [‎85r] (170/225)

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COKFIEENTIAL:
D.O.lTo. S2 -0256
BRITISH AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,
SEAR/AH,
JANUARY 14, 1950.
Nill you please refer to your letter C/TC-
6 of 9th January regarding the Dubai-Abu Dhabi boundary
dispute.
2. I understand privately from Henderson that
Shakhhut*s Violent protests last summer about the
boundary decision might veil have been made on principle
and that he really believes that justice has been done
even if only for the reason that H.M.G. througihly
examined the claims of both sides. I have cause to
hope that he may eventually signify his acceptance of
the avard.
3. My reason for recommending last June that ve
should announce a continuation of the line, vas that
if H.M.G. did not do so, Shakhbut vould assume that
any future extension must necessarily be made in the
same South Easterly direction as the original Hasian
Eshush line and might therefore end up in Buraimi. Such
a line vould not, of course, be H.M.G*s intention and
the fear of this contingency might encourage him to
take th*—l-in-e into his ovn lands. I suggested Hibab,
because that\ vas about the most Easterly point of
proven Dubai territory. I can, on consideration, nov
see tvo objections to this:
(a) As Jakins points out, a line Eshush to
Kibab creates an unnatural salient on the
ground, quite irrespective of any map
(b) Because ve define the territory of Dubai
as lying north of a line Hasian-Eshush-Hibab,
it does not necessarily follov that every
thing south of the line belongs to Abu Dhabi.
These may veil be a considerable area of
purely tribal territory in betveen the tvo
States, (e.g. Beni Ka ! ab).
4. As I see it, the Trucial Shaikhdoms are in the
nature of lobes of territory extending inland into purely
tribal territory from the Rulers 1 capitals only so far
as these Rulers can assert their authority, and vhilst
the land may be neatly divided betveen tvo States from
the coast as far inland as Eshush, for example, such
a division becomes more difficult the further inland
one goes.
5. We majr therefore do one or tvo things, either
(a) Having prevented, ve hope, a dispute over
the ownership of the potential oilfield in the
Jabel Ali area, ve might let the matter rest.
C.J. Pelly, Esquire, O.B.E.,
Polltxcal Agent,
Bahrain.
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