ملف ٢١٨٢ لسنة ١٩١٣، الجزء ٣ "الخليج الفارسي، معاهدة قطر" [و‎‎٢‎٧] (٢٥٤/٦٢)

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Ko. T.- 15 , dated H. M
From
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„„ Tl 1917 I
Lavn-cuce "at
To
ll (received 28th) November 1916.
The Hon'ble Lieutenant-Colonel Sir P. Z. Cox K C,S I K.CLE-
Political Resident in the Persian Qulf,
-The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Depart
ment.
In continuation of my
telegram
No. T.-14 of
. . „ , „ -- to-day’s date, reporting
conclusion of the Treaty with the_ Shaikh of Qatar, I have the honour tP
forward the [original and two copies of the said Treaty, with accompaniments,
together with English versions of the same. One example is with the Shaikh
and one I have retained with myself for the present in case reference is re
quired to it,
2. I have a few observations to make in regard to points on which I have
departed from the previous draft.
Article 2 .—I duly placed Shaikh Abdullah in possession of {a) The com
pilation of our Treaties with the Trucial Chiefs, 1906, and {b) The supplemen
tary compilation of 1912, with each item endorsed by me ; “ Communicated
and delivered to Shaikh Abdullah bin Jasim this 3rd day of November 1916
in conformity with Articles (1) and (2) of the Treaty of same date ” ; but at
the moment of signing up, after being thoroughly bored by the laborious
comparison, signing, and sealing of 5 examples of the Treaty, when Shaikh
Abdullah was asked to proceed with the affixing of his “ signature and seal
to each and every one of the aforesaid Treaties and engagements in two other
printed copies of the same ” he demurred greatly to the task, on the ground
that he had accepted them as a whole in his Treaty with us and that that
should be sufficient. To have insisted would have involved going through with
him carefully every page and every item that he had to sign, and arguing again
many unimportant details of them which are obsolete or inapplicable to the
case of Qatar at the present time ; I therefore did not insist. In point of fact
the call for such a plethora of seals and signatures is one that any unsophisti
cated Arab Shaikh would jib at. We do not exact them from new Trucial
Qhiefs on accession, it being consideied, in their case, sutficient _ to make sure
that they are in possession of a copy of the Compilation or Treaties and to take
their assurance that they accept the obligation to abide by them.
This Shaikh Abdullah has specifically done in Article (1) of his treaty
with us and I hope that it will be regarded as sufficient.
R. Article 3. —In pursuance of your telegram No. 331-S., dated 29th June
1916 , this article has been amplified in order to provide reasonable safeguards
ao-ainst the sale to the public of rifles obtained by the Shaikh through our
auspices ; and the annual allowance of them is reduced from not exceeding
1,000 *’ to “up to five hundred.”
4 Articles 6, 7, 8 and p —These were the 4 articles regarding which
difficulty was to be expected. As we had decided not to press for the admission
of British traders for the present, article (6) was altered so as to apply to
British merchandise only and not to traders, and was placed before the three
following items as being more likely of acceptance _ As now worded it is
intended to protect British Indian merchants residing m Bahrein consigning
goods to their agents in Qatar. I was prepared, as authorised, to eliminate the
next three Articles if it should prove necessary, but the alternatn e course ot
allowing them to stand, while postponing action on them hy a separate
letter seemed preferable, as obviating the alteration of the Treaty at some
future time, and the possible citation to us by other Shaikhs of the special
treatment of Qatar in these respects. I trust the Government of n la will
be of like opinion. „ „ , , .
5 My subsidiary letter to Shaikh Abdullah-—Tie first presse or^ a
definite respite of 10 years from the operation of these Articles, as well as ror
the assuranc P e that they should not be put into ^^UTlmi^sa W v
While not agreeing to specify any particular period I thought 1 might sately
say that action would noJ he taken on the articles “ n H"f c T^rencT
his consent, seeing that ultimately we are m a position to compel concurrence.
1 \'V ; ) !:' ; . with
X F9HEI3IT SECRETARY’S
no. 0 5 u
1 IoLicC]913