Coll 6/67(1) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [300r] (604/794)
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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
of Itrn Saud on one hand and Qatr on the ether are all
to be delimited by agreement. The most that can be
said is that the 1915 agreement appears to proceed
on the assumption that in the future delimitation by
agreement the criterion should be the areas over which '
Ibn Baud and his predecessors and the Sheikh of Qatr etc.
possessed in the past, and this rather suggests that
we did not think the blue line agreement with Turkey
was necessarily to be relevant. This is, of course,
net conclusive, because it may well be that Ibn Saud
and his predecessors could not really establish claims
on past history to territory crossing the blue line
or even coming anywhere near it, and we would not put
the blue line into the agreement because we were not
then-prepared to admit that he could establish a claim
that even went as far as this. I doubt very much if
the 1927 treaty carries the matter any further. The
1922 agreement relates to an area which is so far distant
from the blue line that it can hardly be said to be
directly relevant at all. The most that can be said
about it is that the frontier with Koweit there agreed
upon is quite different from that laid down in the
treaty with Turkey of 1913 and once again the arrange
ments with Turkey do not appear to have been taken as
the basis for fixing the new frontiers. The argument
alone is not, I think, very conclusive, but is, of
course, a straw which acquires some force when added to
other indications of the same kind. More nearly relevant
are the lines drawn by Sir Percy Cox in 1922 at Uquari
actually in the areas concerned (E.1512, para.’I" of the
India...
About this item
- 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:
- Two 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 entitled 'Historical Memorandum on the Relations of the Wahabi Amirs and Ibn Saud with Eastern Arabia and the British Government, 1800-1934', dated 26 September 1934.
- Copies of the minutes of meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 8 November 1934 and 12 September 1934.
- A copy of a report by Bertram Thomas regarding a Trans-Oman air route reconnaissance, which was undertaken in May-June 1927.
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 View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/2134
- Title
- Coll 6/67(1) 'Boundaries of South-Eastern Arabia and Qatar.'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:197v, 199r:199v, 201r:281v, 283r:328v, 340r:362v, 363ar, 363r:389v, 390ar, 390r:393v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence