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'11/5 Negotiations with Ibn Saud regarding Boundaries of Saudi Arabia' [‎150v] (302/430)

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The record is made up of 1 file (212 folios). It was created in Mar 1944-4 Sep 1949. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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had been taken earlier. Fuad Bey did not contest the
aliments but countered with a suggestion that the
Shfikh of Qatar'had recognised Ibn Baud's right to the
Haksh rrior’to the Anglo-Qatar Treaty of 1916.
This alle-ed agreement led to a discussion lasting for
several monthl during 1936. The Shaikh of Qatar denied
any recollection of such an agreement but thought that
Thn Baud or Ibn Jiluwi (the Governor of Hasa) might
have asked permission to collect "zakat-'Ctribute) from
Saudi tribesmen grazing their flocks and herds near
the Jebel Dukhan. Eventually it appeared that Ibn
Saud Sand did not endorse Fuad Bey’s statement about
the pre -1916 agreement.
However, in January 1937'Sir Reader Bullard who had
succeeded Sir A Ryan at Jeddah, was instructed to inform
Fuad Bey that His Majesty’s Government regarded both the
Jebel Nalfsh and the Khor-el-Odeid as essential and to ask
him on what other parts of the frontier he thought joint
proposals could be formulated likely to appeal to Ibn
Saud and to His Majesty’s * Government. Meanwhile he was to
be told that the possibility of offering further slight
concessions on the borders of Muscat^ and the Aden
Protectorate under consideration. Fuad Bey appeared
to know not ing whatever about the Muscat frontier but gave
the impression that the Saudi Arabian Government might be
prepared to effect a compromise over the frontier of the
Aden Protectorate. He was accordingly shown a copy
of the tribal map of the Aden Protectorate which
demonstracted the fact that the point at which the line
put forward by the Saudi Arabian Government would be
nearest to the sea, viz., the junction of 52° East and
17° North, would fall within territory ethnographically
belonging'to Aden Protectorate.tribes. (Map II). Fuad
Bey, always an exponent of the tribal basis of territorial
claims, merely made the personal suggestion that the
point under discussion should be moved further north in
such a v/ay, however, as to leave the Shishur and Tadhan
wells in Saudi territory. He further alleged (though
erroneously) that these two wells had been included in
a list of waterinTg-places belonging to the Ahl Murra
communicated to His Majesty’s Government in 1933 and
promised to ascertain the basie of the claim to them and
to two others called Sanau and Thamud. He never did
so. On' 12th February Sir R. Bullard wrote to Fuad Bey
that evidence (from Bertram Thomas’s ’’Arabia Felix”)
seemed to show that all four wells were in the territory
of tribes to which Ibn Saud made no claim, and that the
Ahl Murra did not come as far south as these wells.
In 1937 Sir R. Bullard and Mr. Rendel, the head of
the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office had
prolonged discussions at Jeddah with Shaikh Yusuf Yasin
and Shaikh Hafiz Wohba the Saudi Arabian Minister in
London , stressing the physical relation of ‘the Jebel WAKStf
HaXe# to the Jebel Dukhar in the Qatar peninsula..
Yusuf Yasin repeated the old argument about tribal
allegiance though he said that Ibn Saud, if the Jebel
Naksh were given to him, would abandon even more extensive
claims he might make in that quarter. Mr. Rendel replied
that the integrity of the peninsula must be maintained
and urged that, as Ibn Saud’s claim to the Jebel Naksh
/had.•

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Content

The file comprises correspondence, memoranda, maps, and other papers relating to questions over the position of Saudi Arabia’s south-eastern frontier adjoining Qatar and the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. shaikhdoms, notably Abu Dhabi. Negotiations over the frontier had long been deferred by British Government officials, as a result of the Ruler of Saudi Arabia ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd’s [Ibn Saud] firm stance in negotiations before the Second World War. However, the need for a resolution became increasingly apparent as a result of ongoing oil exploration in Saudi Arabia by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), and exploration in Qatar and Abu Dhabi by Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL). The principal correspondents in the file include: representatives of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , Foreign Office, Ministry of Fuel and Power; the British Legation at Jedda; the 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. at Bahrain; and the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .

The file includes:

  • correspondence, dating from 1944 and 1945, between British Government officials in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. and Foreign Office, discussing the previous difficulties encountered in negotiating Saudi Arabia’s south-eastern frontiers with Ibn Saud, and the agreement that further negotiations be left until after the event of Ibn Saud’s death (ff 2-29);
  • correspondence from late 1945 through 1947, between Government officials on the possible establishment of a neutral zone between Aramco’s concession area in Saudi Arabia, and PCL’s concession area in Qatar. Also, there is some discussion of Aramco’s proposals to begin seabed exploration off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia (ff 36-59);
  • PCL’s request for permission to conduct seismic surveys at the southernmost limit of their concession area in Qatar (ff 76-95);
  • reports of Aramco survey parties making incursions into PCL’s concession areas in Qatar and Abu Dhabi (ff 104-127);
  • Government criticism of PCL’s delay in exploiting its concession areas in Qatar and Abu Dhabi (f 133);
  • preparations in August 1949 for the reopening of frontier negotiations with the Saudi Government in Jedda. Papers include: a copy of a confidential memorandum with map, dated 2 February 1948, on the south-eastern frontier of Saudi Arabia, prepared by J E Cable of the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office (ff 164-169; copy also at ff 87-91); three further confidential memoranda with maps, prepared by the Eastern Department in 1940, outlining past and present negotiations on the position of the south-eastern frontiers of Saudi Arabia (ff 170-180, ff 181-185, ff 186-188); proposals to send representatives from Qatar and Abu Dhabi to the Jedda negotiations (ff 190-203).
Extent and format
1 file (212 folios)
Arrangement

The file’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order, from the earliest item at the front to the latest at the end. The file notes at the end of the file (ff 204-212) mirror the chronological arrangement.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover and terminates at the inside back cover; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. This file has the following foliation anomaly: 111A. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 4-203; these numbers are also written in pencil, and can be found in the same position as the main sequence, but they are not circled. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

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'11/5 Negotiations with Ibn Saud regarding Boundaries of Saudi Arabia' [‎150v] (302/430), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/2/465, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100028545189.0x000067> [accessed 19 April 2024]

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