Coll 30/5(3) 'Bahrein [sic] Residency Monthly Letter - Summary of Events' [‎51r] (101/253)

i /Kuwait.
commit themselves he endeavoured to persuade the Ruler of Abu
Dhabi to sign an agreement giving his company the first refu
sal of the off-shore oil concession on certain stated terms
and would have succeeded in doing so but for the personal
intervention first of Stobart and then of Felly. Petroleum
Concessions Limited who previously had given us to believe
that they were not interested in off-shore oil in this area
now claim that it is covered by their existing concessions and
Lermitte has been busy trying to persuade the Rulers of
Abu Dhabi and Qatar to admit this. Abu Dhabi has refused to
do so while Qatar has apparently expressed no definite opinion
as yet. This state of confusion is largely due to the delay
of the Saudi Arabian Government in issuing a proclamation de
fining their rights in off-shore oil. It is proposed that
after this has been issued the Gulf Rulers should issue simi
lar proclamations and they have been instructed not to come
to any agreement with any company with respect to off-shore
oil until this has been done. In addition to Sir Hugh Weight-
man, Bertram Thomas representing Shell has been in Qatar. He
appears however to have been very scrupulous in refraining
from any endeavour to persuade the Ruler to commit himself
and has left for London to obtain instructions from his prin
cipals.
In view of the fall in the price of oil, the Kuwait Oil
Company are gradually slowing down their efforts and reducing
their pay-roll. They hope to have their small local refinery
completed in July and their pier at Fahahil, which the Shaikh
insists on calling Minat al Ahmadi, in September. They have
allowed the Shaikh to establish his own police posts under
the command of his son Jabir in their camps. This might per
haps have been prevented had the company conducted their re
lations with the Shaikh through 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. in accor
dance with their Political Agreement.
The Bahrain Petroleum Company wish to establish electronic
survey aid stations in Qatar and on Farsi Island to assist
them in the survey of the islands, shoals and waters round
Bahrain which are covered by their concession. The Ruler of
Qatar is likely to grant permission for the proposed station
in his territory but some difficulty arises over Farsi Island
which although regarded by us as belonging to Kuwait has re
cently been claimed by both Saudi Arabia and Persia.
Bahrain .
I saw the Shaikh when I took Ellison to call on him and
have also met him two or three times at social functions.
He is making enquiries about the basis of our jurisdiction
in Bahrain over subjects of Qatar, Kuwait and the Trucial
States, and will probably ask that this should be ceded to
him. He has issued a proclamation forbidding the sale of
movable property by Bahrain subjects to foreigners except by
the permission in writing of the Bahrain Government. His
uncle, Shaikh Muhammad is still in America and his relations
consider it rather foolish for such an old man to spend so
much time gadding about. We have had a number of social func
tions. The Spring Races on the 26th April were attended by
a record crowd and the tote paid 25 to 1 on one of the winners.
A boxing tournament was arranged by the Arab Club at Muharraq
and was attended by the Shaikh and a large audience. The
judging and refereeing was done by Anglo-Indian members of
my staff and the whole affair which was the first of its
kind in Bahrain went off extremely well. At the end of the
month the annual exhibition of needlework from the girls’
schools and of various kinds of work from the boys’ schools was
held, and was as usual organised extremely efficiently by
Mrs. Belgrave. It was visited by large numbers of all classes
and many purchases were made.