'File 5/2 III Kuwait Neutral Zone' [‎306r] (616/779)

CNCLOSime IN f#»Mnon orrrc*
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY^?/I lESTVMi fiMff.RNMENT
confidential.
r
c rm
Copy No.
(15474)
[B 3066/1036/91] 1933
Aareement between the Saudi Arabian GovernmeniTand the Standard Oil
Company of California ) May 27—29, 1933.
ON the 27th May, 1933, an agreement was signed between the Saudi Arabian
Government and the Standard Oil Company of California granting the company
I a concession for a defined area in Eastern Saudi Arabia corresponding rou^ >
with the district of Hasa. An abridged text of this agreement was published at
* the time in the Mecca newspaper Umm-al-Qura. What was believed to be a fu
lext cons^ting of thirty-four articles, was obtained in 1935 by 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 ^ We Th? S 1 A^in 9 ^ announcing the grant of the concession
contained however, a reference to a special agreement, vv ic was no
published’ It was believed at the time that the “ special agreement §2 ve 1
California Arabian Standard Oil Company an option on territory in Easter
Saudi Arabia not already included in the Hasa concession, but details mci
lackin D . ^ A -j 193 g t | ie Saudi Arabian Legation in London communicated
unofficially to the Foreign Office the text of three articles of an agreement relating
to the Standard Oil Company's concession, together with a
the 29th May 1933, from the company s representative to the baudi Arabia
Minister of Finance. This letter refers inter alia to ‘ ‘ the contract signed t0 '^ a y.
The* three articles and the letter deal with the particular question of the
company’s option rights outside the original concession area Arabian
4 ' The three articles were numbered 3, 7 and 35. The Saudi Ar
Legation had no knowledge of the remainder of the
articles are supposed to be taken, and it is, m any case, f*® e ti me
be two complete, but entirely separate, agreements signed at about the same time
' f'ThI mostyobabffieiplanation is that on the 29th May, 1933 a modified
version of the original agreelnent of the 27th May --^'g-^and that this
modified version consisted of the origina agreement w th ^
and the interpretative letter. This is borne out by ^e Lyt that if the th
additional articles are inserted in their proper places in the original agieement,
the 'ghol^agreement jeads consecuLvH^c ^ ^ with the three
articles inserted. The numbering. of the other apic es has teen altered
1 ncrnrdino-lv ie article 3 in the original becomes article 4, article U becomes
' article *6 article 6 becomes article 8, and so on as far as article 32, which becomes
art c e 34 after which the new article 35 supersedes the original article 33.
Finally article 34 becomes article 36. References to other articles have been
altered’to correspond with the new numbering. The letter has been placed at t
end o^ th « h a e g;“document is confidential, as no part of it has been communi
cated 7 officially to His Majesty’s Government by the Saudi Arabian Government.
Foreign Office, September 22. 1938.
(■) ■■ Further Correspondence respecting Eastern Affairs," Part XXXVI, Enclosure in No. 68.
10067 [17968] B