Coll 6/63 'SOUTH EASTERN ARABIA AND QATAR BOUNDARIES.' [329v] (665/756)
The record is made up of 1 volume (374 folios). It was created in 19 Jan 1923-12 Jun 1934. It was written in English and French. 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. .
Transcription
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Position of Area lying between Base of Qatar Peninsula and Blue Line of
Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913.
10 If in these circumstances, it is accepted that the southern boundary of Qatar
should be a line running via or to the north of Sakak more or less south-east from
Dohat-as-Salwa or a point slightly to the north of Dohat-as-Salwa to a point to t(
north of the Khor-al-Odeid, the difficult question arises of the position of the country
lying between such a line and the blue line of the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913.
Importance of Maintaining the Blue Line.
H Oh the one hand, it appears definitely important if possible to maintain the
blue line laid down in the unratified Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913 as against
Ibn Saud or any other future ruler of this part of Arabia. While the 1913 Convention
was never ratified, the blue line at any rate represents the agreement reached at the
time between Turkey and His Majesty’s Government as to the limits of Turkish
authority in northern Arabia and on the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, and in dealing with Ibn Saud
as the successor in title to the Turks we can, it would seem, not unreasonably take
our stand on it. The difficulties of finding any satisfactory substitute are patent.
The undesirability of giving Ibn Saud, in the absence of any definite eastern boundary
to his territories, an excuse for territorial expansion (as distinct from the exercise, as
at present, of an informal influence and the receipt from our Arab clients of payments
which we do not recognise and the existence of which we ignore) in the hinterland of
the
Trucial Coast
A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
and of Muscat is equally clear. Such expansion would clearly
involve a risk either of his coming into conflict with the local rulers, whose treaty
relations with His Majesty’s Government he has formally lecognised, or of : his
establishing an influence in the Sheikhdoms in question so powerful as to be
embarrassing from our point of view, it is Tclovant, finally, that- confidential infor
mation suggests—that Ibu Saird^-doeS'iIothimself at the nronreirPaeriously question the
Jiliie linmi
Disadvantages of Maintenance of the Blue Line while fixing Southern Boundary
of Qatar at the Base of the Qatar Peninsula.
12. At the same time, important on general grounds, for the reasons given, as
the maintenance of the blue line appears to be, the fact must be faced that in the
present case, if we continue to regard it as the eastern boundary of Ibn Sand’s territory,
and if, as suggested, we accept a southern boundary lor Qatar running roughly across
the base of the Qatar Peninsula, a not inconsiderable area lying between the two
States, and peopled by migratory Bedouin tribes, will be left in an indeterminate
political position. There is a possibility that the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, who has in
the past exercised a wide influence, and made tribal alliances of his own, in the
trucial hinterland—c/. Sir P. Cox’s letter No. 176 of 28th June 1904—might prefer
some claim to such an area. But, though on this point further information will be
sought from the Besident, there seems little evidence of any active interest on the
part of Abu Dhabi in any area to the west of Aqal. Assuming that no such claim
exists, or could be substantiated, the alternatives are to recognise the area as
belonging to Ibn Saud ; to recognise it as belonging to the Sheikh of Qatar ; or to
regard it as a political no-man’s land.
13. If we recognised it as belonging to Ibn Saud we could, if necessary, call upon
him to-keep Bedouin raids into Qatar from it under control. But such recognition
would not merely be inconsistent with the maintenance of the blue line of the 1913
Convention, to the abandonment of which, as stated above, the objections appear to be
strong, but would represent a formal acceptance of Saudi sovereignty to the borders
or Qatar and Abu Dhabi Avhich might well prove embarrassing.
14. If, on the other hand, it is attributed to the Sheikh of Qatar, we should be
justified in expecting the full co-operation of the Sheikh in dealing with Bedouin
activities within its limits. But such an attribution would not merely to give to Qatar
a substantial area which she does not in the past appear to have claimed, but would
extend the limits of any liability for protection which we may undertake in connection
with the grant of an oil concession. It might be necessary to claim the area (or at
any rate its coastal strip) for Qatar if there were serious signs of foreign interest
in it or of an intention on the part of Ibn Saud to occupy it. But pending such
developments it seems wiser to limit our commitments and to avoid any extension of
the area recognised by us as Qatar.
About this item
- Content
This volume relates to the eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia and the southern boundary of Qatar.
Much of the correspondence discusses the legal and international position of what is referred to as the 'blue line' (the frontier which marked the Ottoman Government's renunciation of its claims to Bahrain and Qatar, as laid down in the non-ratified Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 and redefined and adopted in the Anglo-Ottoman convention of the following year), which is regarded by the British as the eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia, but is disputed by the Saudi Government, mainly on the grounds that it is no longer correct, following various developments during the years since the line was demarcated.
British concerns regarding these boundaries follow a recent oil concession for the Hasa [Al Hasa] region of Saudi Arabia, granted by the Saudi Government to the Standard Oil Company of California, as well as reports of the possibility of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company securing an oil concession in Qatar.
Related matters discussed in the correspondence include the following:
- The British policy regarding the blue line.
- The views of 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 officials, as well as other British officials (most notably Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, former 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. , and Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, 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 Kuwait), regarding the demarcation of the southern boundary of Qatar.
- British concerns regarding the land lying between the blue line and the southern boundary of Qatar, as recognised by the Sheikh of Qatar [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī].
- A request for a copy of the 1913 Anglo-Ottoman Convention, submitted by the United States Embassy in Angora [Ankara] – reportedly on behalf of the United States' State Department – to its British counterpart, and the wider significance of this request in relation to the United States' oil interests in the region.
- Foreign Office concerns that aerial survey work carried out by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) in relation to its Hasa oil concession might extend beyond the blue line.
The volume features the following principal correspondents: His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); 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); 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. , Kuwait (Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson); the Secretary of State for India (Samuel Hoare); the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India; the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs; 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 Admiralty, and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department.
In addition to correspondence, the volume includes extracts from Bahrain political intelligence reports and minutes of meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, which concern the Qatar boundary.
Whilst the volume contains material dating from 1923 to 1934, the vast majority of the material dates from 1934. The French material consists of a short extract from the aforementioned Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, which is contained in copies of an 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. memorandum on the southern boundary of Qatar.
The volume includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 3-4).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (374 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 for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 374; 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 front and back covers have not been foliated.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2130
- Title
- Coll 6/63 'SOUTH EASTERN ARABIA AND QATAR BOUNDARIES.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:17v, 20r:30v, 32r:56v, 58r:72v, 74r:125v, 129r:259v, 261r:267v, 269r:280v, 282r:285v, 287r:296v, 301r:305v, 307r:326v, 328r:331v, 333r:352v, 356r:356v, 359r:374v, back-i
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- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
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- Open Government Licence