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Coll 6/67(6) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar: Trucial Coast Oil Concessions' [‎193r] (396/402)

The record is made up of 1 file (195 folios). It was created in 30 Jun 1940-30 Mar 1948. 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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r
/
DiokKm’s^etter^o 13 ^ n® B- 0n T oontained in Paragraph 6 of Colonel
A ^“ 17 of the 18th January, 1934, to 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.
and m the enclosure therein, where it is observed that the Sheikh of Qatar “ has
Qatari^deDends^fn^b - C H' 11 ? , as own ' n Qatar■ ■ ■ • Ibn Thani thTsheikh of
^ Bini Mnrra Twn f fh fn g men draWn fr0m the Bini Ha i ar and
I ' thirdtTbe is rManasfr- ree 68 PaStUrmg al ° ng the b ° rder of ( '> atar '
31 To sum up it may be that the Saudi Arabian Government do not
administer the Jebel Nakhsh, even though they may say they do and even though
the tribes of the area pay them tribute as a means of securing themselves against
raids by tnbes under effective Saudi control. But neither does, for that matter,
me bneikn 01 Qatar, and since this territory is directly ruled by nobody the most
logical course might be, were it not for extraneous commitments, to attribute it
to the Power to whom the local tribes recognise their allegiance. Indeed from
the evidence at present available it seems that the Sheikh of Qatar exercises
little if any, authority over most of the Qatar peninsula, let alone Jebel Nakhsh.
furthermore, the boundaries of his State were never clearly defined until,Nn
1935, they were shown in the Qatar oil concession agreement to be the same as
the limits of the area of the concession itself.
32. In these circumstances, it is difficult to rebut an argument to the effect
that much of what has been regarded and recognised as Qatar territory is
res nullius, as defined by Mr. Beckett in his minute of the 29th August, 1934,
since the Sheikh of Qatar exercises no control over it and has no demonstrably
valid claim to it, and that the Sheikh was exceeding his rights in including the
Jebel Nakhsh or any other part of such territory in the area of the 1935
concession. The argument is strengthened by the consideration, which has already
been discussed, that the position of local tribal chiefs exercising no established
rule is fundamentally different from that of the rulers of recognised States
whose independence is commonly recognised or guaranteed by His Majesty’s
Government, and that in the case of the former the payment of tribute may
legitimately be taken as a factor determining their allegiance to any particular
ruler and consequently establishing their political status. If on this basis it can
be shown that the local tribes owe allegiance to Ibn Sand, as appears to be the
case, the latter may well consider himself fully justified in claiming the territory
in question for Saudi Arabia.
E. 1513/81/
91 (1934).
(H )—The Saudi claim to territory otherwise claimed for A bu Dhabi, Muscat
and the Aden Protectorate.
33. The Saudi Arabian claim to territory in South-Eastern Arabia
formulated in 1934 is not limited to the Khor-el-Odeid and the Jebel Nakhsh,
but also extends to territory otherwise claimed by the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, the
Sultan of Muscat, and certain rulers or tribes, of whom the most important is
the Sultan of Shihr and Mokalla, in the Aden Protectorate. These claims
appear, however, to be of less importance in Saudi eyes than the claims to the
Khor-el-Odeid and the Jebel Nakhsh, and only require brief notice, particularly
as the arguments advanced by Ibn Saud and the counter-arguments of His
Majesty’s Government do not differ materially from those employed by the two
parties over the two principal claims.
34. With regard to territory claimed by Saudi Arabia, but belonging, if it
belongs to anybody, to the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, most of what has been said
concerning the claim to the Khor-el-Odeid also applies to the claim to territory
further south and east. The Saudi claim is based on histoiical arguments and
on tribal allegiances, and His Majesty’s Government’s counter-argument is based
mainly on Article 6 of the Treaty of Jedda, whereby the Saudi Arabian Govein-
ment undertook to recognise the special treaty relations existing between His
Majesty’s Government and the Trucial Sheikhs.
35' In 1937 the question arose of determining the western frontiers of the
territory of the Sultan of Muscat, so as to ensure that no offer made to Ibn Saud
should unwittingly impinge on these frontiers. In spite of his suspicion and an
ingrained unwillingness to formulate his claims with precision, the Sultan was
finally persuaded to put forward a statement of the limits of the territory which
he believed to belong to him. He stated that he would have no objection if the

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Content

This volume concerns British policy regarding the south-eastern boundaries of Saudi Arabia, specifically its border with Qatar.

The correspondence and memoranda near the beginning of the volume discuss from a British perspective the origins and recent history of the boundary dispute, which is described as having been in abeyance since 1938; much of the later correspondence is concerned with whether the British should make renewed attempts to reach an agreement with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] .

References are made to various existing and proposed boundary lines, the most recent of the latter is the 'Riyadh line' (the name given to the boundary proposed by the British to the Saudi Government in November 1935, referred to elsewhere as the 'final offer').

Notable correspondents include the following: 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. (Charles Geoffrey Prior, succeeded by William Rupert Hay); 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. , Bahrain (Reginald George Alban, Edward Birkbeck Wakefield, and Cornelius James Pelly); His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Stanley R Jordan, succeeded by Laurence Barton Grafftey-Smith); officials of the Foreign Office, 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. , the Government of India's External Affairs Department, and the Ministry of Fuel and Power (Petroleum Division); representatives of the United States' State Department, Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited, Petroleum Concessions Limited, and the Iraq Petroleum Company respectively.

Related matters of discussion include:

  • Ibn Saud's claims regarding the south-eastern frontiers of Saudi Arabia, particularly those relating to Jebel Nakhsh [Khashm an Nakhsh, Qatar] and Khor-el-Odeid [Khawr al ‘Udayd, Qatar].
  • Reports in 1941 of a rumour that the Shaikh of Qatar [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī] and Ibn Saud have reached an agreement regarding the Saudi-Qatar boundary.
  • The likelihood of oil prospecting either near or within the disputed territory, and its implications for the territorial dispute.
  • British concerns in 1947 regarding the possibility of the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) initiating drilling operations in the seabed near to the disputed territory.
  • The precise location of proposed drillings by Petroleum Concessions Limited in the Qatar Peninsula.
  • A reported complaint in 1947 from the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi [Shaikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan] that Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited has laid buoys in his territorial waters.
  • Whether the British should permit or impede a proposed survey in Qatar by Petroleum Concessions Limited, which is thought likely to provoke protests from Ibn Saud.

Also included are three maps depicting the eastern and south eastern parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 2).

Extent and format
1 file (195 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 195; 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. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.

Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Coll 6/67(6) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar: Trucial Coast Oil Concessions' [‎193r] (396/402), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2139, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100049276752.0x0000c5> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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