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Coll 6/67(2) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎346v] (697/734)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (363 folios). It was created in 26 Jan 1934-1 May 1935. 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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10
2. Sir Percjr Cox said that he had kept no private notes as to what passed at his
meeting with Ibn Sand on the occasion in question. Anything he had reported or
recorded on the subject would have been left on record at Baghdad; but to the
best of his recollection and belief the facts and circumstances were as follows : —
3. The specific object with which, accompanied by Iraq representatives, he §&
went to meet Ibn Saud at Ojair was to induce him to ratify the Mohammerah
Agreement of 5th May 1922. Sir Percy proceeded to the rendezvous without
any knowledge that he would there meet Major Holmes or wmuld have occasion
to express any opinion as to the boundaries of the Qatar Peninsula; but
learning from Major Holmes, and from the map that he produced, that he was
endeavouring to obtain from Ibn Saud a concession for exploiting oil in an area
which included the Qatar Peninsula, he (Sir Percy Cox) naturally informed
Major Holmes—and no doubt Ibn Saud also—that this could not be. If he had
then been asked, as he doubtless must have been, w T hat he considered should
be excluded, as constituting Qatar, Sir Percy would undoubtedly have based his
answer on his own knowledge, as Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. for many years,
namely, that, on the east coast, Qatar’s boundary with the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi’s
territory was the head of the Khor-al-’Odaid, and on the west coast the head of Salwa
Bay. This, in Sir Percy’s recollection, was the position recognised in the Bushire
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and adopted hy Lorimer in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Gazetteer. Sir Percy
probably had the Gazetteer with him, but on the above point he would hardly have
needed to consult it. In any case he is positive that the Anglo-Turkish Blue Line of
1913 was never mentioned, and is of opinion that any view which he expressed
incidentally and ex tempoi'e could not reasonably be regarded as the official
pronouncement of the Hasa-Qatar boundary contemplated in our first treaty with Ibn
Saud (December 1915) in which it figured as one of those to be “ hereafter
determined.” Moreover, Sir Percy Cox states that he informed both Ibn Saud and
Major Holmes that His Majesty’s Government ought to be consulted before any
concession was granted.
4. Sir Percy said that in these circumstances it seemed to him that Plis Majesty’s
Government were entirely free, in so far as the conversations of 1922 were concerned,
to maintain against Ibn Saud the Blue Line of the unratified Anglo-Turkish Convention
of 1913 as the eastern boundary of Nejd.
5. Sir Percy said he was not aware whether either Ibn Saud or the Sheikh of
Qatar had ever advanced a definite claim to the ownership of the Barr-al-Qarah
coastal tract, between Zakhnuniyeh and Salwa, but it seemed to him that if occasion
arose in the future for a compromise it wmuld be a reasonable course to assign to
Ibn Saud, in view of his strong position at Ojair close .by, that length of coast line
with its hinterland, up to the Blue Line. This would have the advantage of leaving
no indeterminate area along the sea-coast.
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. ,
27th February 1934.
J. G. L.

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Content

This volume concerns British policy regarding the south-eastern boundaries of Saudi Arabia.

It documents preparations for negotiations with the Saudi Government, and includes interdepartmental discussion regarding the approach that the British Government should take in reaching a settlement with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] over the demarcation of the boundaries.

The areas of territory discussed include that which separates Saudi Arabia and the Aden Protectorate in the south, that which extends to the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman in the south-east, and the area extending to the south of Qatar in the east.

Reference is made to the 'blue line' and the 'violet line' – boundary lines that formed part of the Anglo-Ottoman Conventions, concluded in 1913 and 1914 respectively.

The correspondence includes discussion of the following:

  • The likely consequences of not settling on defined boundaries.
  • The extent of territory that the British should be prepared to include in any concession made to Ibn Saud.
  • The legal distinction between personal and territorial sovereignty.
  • References made by Fuad Bey Hamza (Deputy Saudi Minister for Foreign Affairs) during conversations with Sir Andrew Ryan (His Majesty's Minister at Jedda), regarding certain assurances made by Sir Henry McMahon to King Hussein of the Hejaz [Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī] in 1915, on the subject of Arab independence (a summary of a letter from King Hussein to McMahon, together with a copy of McMahon's reply, is included in the volume).
  • Tribal history in Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. between 1918 and 1934.
  • The Koweit [Kuwait] blockade.
  • The boundaries of a proposed 'desert zone', roughly following the edge of the sands of the Ruba al Khali and considered by the British as a possible concession but later abandoned.
  • Abu Dhabi's claims to Odeid [Al ‘Udayd, Saudi Arabia] and Banaiyan [Bi’r Bunayyān, Saudi Arabia].

The volume features the following principal correspondents: 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 (Percy Gordon Loch); 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. (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle); His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Philip Cunliffe-Lister); Bernard Rawdon Reilly (Chief Commissioner, Aden, but referred to in the correspondence as Resident); officials of the Foreign Office, the Colonial 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 War Office, the Air Ministry, and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department.

In addition to correspondence, the volume contains a sketch map and a copy of draft minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 15 April 1935.

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 4).

Extent and format
1 volume (363 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 (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 365; 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Coll 6/67(2) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎346v] (697/734), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2135, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100054083086.0x000062> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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