"ملف 10/1 الامتياز النفطي بالبحرين" [و‎‎٢‎٤] (٤٧٦/٦٢)

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y 2.
V
Territorial Waters. As agreed inter-departmentally
^ ^ /It?/
we made no reference yesterday in our letter to the
Company dated 1st August No.P.Z.4649/33 to territorial
waters, in view of the uncertainty as to the intentions
of the Political Resident and the Sheikh in this matter.
The Ccmpany will, however, almost certainly raise the
point, and it would be well to "be prepared with a reply.
So far as we are concerned here our reply can "be that
we have communicated the Sheikh's offer as we received
it and we must refer the point to him. Sut we ought, I
think, to be prepared simultaneously to advise him as to
the line to be taken in regard to it.
I have gone carefully through the concession of
1925 and the schedules appended to it. There appears
nowhere to be any specific reference to territorial
waters. Further, on a reasonable construction of the
document as a whole it would, I think, be fair to sajr
that it has land and not marine territories in view.
On the other hand something must, as you suggested this
morning, turn on general practice in the construction of
oil agreements, and I gather from what you said that
general practice would be constitiedtregarding an agreement
such as the present as prohibiting drilling operations
even below low water mark. If, in the light of your
views and as a result of further consideration we cane
to the conclusion that the existing concession can
reasonably be construed as extending to the territorial
waters of the Sheikh's territories, the limits of any
fresh concession to be granted in respect of the area
still unallotted once the Company have taken up the area
of/