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Coll 6/67(1) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎193r] (390/794)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (392 folios). It was created in 13 Jun 1934-13 Dec 1934. It was written in English and Arabic. 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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1922-1934.
Representations by the Sheikh of Qatar, 1921-22.
j Ibn Saud warned to respect Qatar, 1922.
200. In 1921 the Sheikh of Qatar represented that he was alarmed lest
some of his townspeople should become Akhwan and join Ibn Saud, and enquired
whether H.M. Government would assist him should he be attacked from the
interior. He was informed that H.M. Government were not prepared to promise p g 13
more than diplomatic assistance should Ibn Saud attack him. Late in 1922 he '
intimated that, while he did not fear an open attack by Ibn Saud so long as the
latter remained on good terms with H.M. Government, he was seriously concerned
by the more subtle methods employed, he alleged, by the Nejd authorities to
undermine his position. The Resident suggested that a hint might be given to
Ibn Saud to keep his people in order, but no action was taken on this
proposal. In November-December 1922 Sir Percy Cox, finding that Ibn Saud
proposed to include the whole of the peninsula of Qatar in a concession for oil in
the Hasa district which was then under consideration, intimated to him that this
could not be accepted and that he had nothing to do with Qatar except to respect
it under the terms of his Treaty with us, and insisted on the limitation of his
discussions to country west of the longitude of Salwa Bay. Sir P. Cox is stated
by Lt.-Colonel H. R. P. Hickson, who was present, to have drawn on a map a line
running from Hjau-ed-Hukhan to Dohat-as-Salwa, which, he indicated, must
represent the Eastern boundary of any concession granted by Ibn Saud in respect
of Hasa. The Sultan accepted this injunction without argument. The line in h.C.
question, it may be remarked, cuts across the Blue Line, which was never men- Bagdad, to
tioned in the discussions. Sir Percy Cox has spnce stated that, to the best of his G - of L >
recollection, nothing took place in his discussion with Ibn Saud which would Jo 1
prevent His Majesty’s Government from claiming the Blue Line as the eastern Deot Memo
boundary of Saudi Arabia. B. 430/P.z.
614/34.
Reassertion of Wahabi influence in Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. and at Baraimi, 1922-34.
201. In 1922, when Sheikh Sultan bin Zaid murdered and succeeded his
brother, the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, he found that the authority of his family in
Baraimi, where it had been predominant since 1870, had fallen to a low ebb; and Pol. Res.
the Beni Naim of Baraimi were engaged in conflicts with Abu Dhabi. In June to c o -’
1925 it was reported that the Awamir and the Darn had appealed to the Wahabi 9 - 6 - 26 -
Amir of Hasa to protect them from Abu Dhabi, and in the same month it was
reported that the Amir had sent an official to collect zakat in the Baraimi oasis,
who was generally, but not invariably successful. This official also arrested and
hanged a Hasawi refugee in Baraimi and notified the Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi and
Debai that the Amir of Hasa had taken the Awamir and Daru tribes, who were
fundamentally Muscat subjects, under the protection of the Sultan of Nejd.
Anti-Wahabi combinations in Oman, 1925.
202. In July 1925 it appeared that the Sheikhs of the Beni Naim, Beni
Khatib and the Beni Kaab had been negotiating with Shargah for mutual assist
ance in the event of aggression by the Wahabis, and in August 1925, after a
conference between Debai and the Imam of the fanatical Ibadhi tribes of the
hinterland of Muscat, it was agreed that the two should support one another
against the Wahabis.
Further Wahabi activity, 1925-26.
203. In December 1925 a letter received by the Sheikh of Debai from the Amir
of Hasa contained a serious threat against the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. In February
1926 the Amir of Hasa appears to have sent police to Shargah in pursuit of a Nejdi
criminal. He was not found there and the police proceeded to Ajman and
Ras al Khaimah. The man escaped detection. It was reported at the same time
that Nejdi slavetraders were bringing negroes and war captives to the coastal
towns for sale, and that the Trucial Sheikhs were afraid to interfere with them.

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Content

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

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

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), a line which is not accepted by Ibn Saud as being binding upon his government.

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 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 (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch); the Chief Commissioner, Aden (Bernard Rawdon Reilly, referred to in the correspondence as Resident); the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister); the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir John Simon); the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs; officials of 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 Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the War Office, and the Air Ministry.

Matters discussed in the correspondence include the following:

  • Whether the British should press Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] for a general settlement of all outstanding major questions.
  • The extent of territory that the British should be prepared to include in any concession made to Ibn Saud.
  • The British response to what are referred to as Ibn Saud's 'ancestral claims' to territories east of the blue line.
  • Sir Andrew Ryan's meetings with Ibn Saud in Taif, in July 1934.
  • Meetings held at the Foreign Office between Sir Andrew Ryan, George Rendel (Head of the Foreign Office's Eastern Department), Fuad Bey Hamza (Deputy Minister for Saudi Foreign Affairs), and Hafiz Wahba (Saudi Arabian Minister in London), in September 1934.
  • The boundaries of a proposed 'desert zone', suggested by Rendel, where Ibn Saud would hold personal rather than territorial rights.
  • Saudi-Qatari relations.
  • Whether tribal boundaries should be considered as a possible solution to the boundary question.

Also included are the following:

The Arabic material consists of one item of correspondence (an English translation is included).

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 (392 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 394; 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 and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script
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Coll 6/67(1) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎193r] (390/794), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2134, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056574349.0x0000bf> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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