مجموعة ٦ / ٦٧ (٦) "حدود جنوب شرق الجزيرة العربية وقطر: امتيازات النفط في الساحل المتصالح" [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٧] (٤٠٢/٣٨١)

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gave Fuad Bey no hmt Ibat he tho g purel P persoua i and that he proposed
He said that any reply he »a'e w - ^ F • orarv success0 r at the Ministry
sending his observations n f ot R ^J rose ]f while he was on leave m Syria,
for Foreign Affairs, bul to luax Y -g i| d sa id that he was of opinion
In his report to the Foreign 0 ®^ Sir R. Bnhaict ,aia t. possibility
that a compromise on these hne^waspo^bl^andthat^ ^ ^
of removing the sole major
Palestine reply to the protest of the 20th January about
b4. in Apm ivoo c . S • an d local oil representatives was
communi cations rath an * Govemmenh stating tha't in 1934, when
lh“forMan Arabian Standard Oil Company were beginning their operations
to ni r United States Government, had asked His Majesty s Government for
information about boundaries m those regions, and that His _ a J est } ®
Government had not only furnished the information explained carefully and
confidentially that the legal frontier m that area was the Blue hne. . k ai
Arabian Government were duly informed at the time of this communication
to the United States Government, and since that time His Majesty s Govei nment
had not informed either the Saudi Arabian Government or the united states
Government that they no longer consider the Blue line as the legal frontier or
that they considered that the company was free to prospect to the east ox that
line. • His Majesty’s Government felt that they would have been justified in
making a protest to the Saudi Arabian Government when they learned that the
company, in spite of the information conveyed to that Go\einment, weie
operating near Qasr-al-Salwa; but on the contrary, purely out of deference to
Ibn Sand and from their desire to facilitate matters for him and for the company,
they had merely informed the company’s representatives quite informally that
they would raise no objection to the company’s operating, within certain limits,
to the east of the extreme limit yet proposed by His Majesty’s Government to
the Saudi Government, and this notwithstanding the previous communication
made to the United States Government and to the Saudi Arabian Government.
His Majesty’s Government had acted in accordance with this practice in cases
where important oil companies, whether of the same or of different nationalities,
were operating in adjoining areas, and they regretted that the Saudi Arabian
Government should take exception to a normal procedure designed to ensure the
maintenance of good relations between the great oil companies and the countries
in which they were registered.
65. In November 1938, when His Majesty’s Minister was at Riyadh. Fuad
Bey interrogated him about the frontier question, and, emphasising the
importance that attached to the question in Ibn Sand’s eyes, asked whether
Sir R. Bullard was able to make some reply to the proposals which he had put
forward in the spring. But as His Majesty’s Government had not been able to
reach any agreement about the proposed cession of the Khor-el-Odeid owing to
the existing rights of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi, which it was suggested could
not be disregarded even ii the sheikh were offered compensation in other
directions, Sir R. Bullard was not, in the circumstances, able to give an
encouraging reply to this question.
66. Since Fuad Bey’s conversation with Sir R. Bullard in November 1938
the Saudi Arabian Government have not raised the question again and it may
apparently be considered to be in abeyance. No mention of it was made in Ibii
Sand s letter to the Prime Minister which the Emir Feisal brought with him
when he came to London for the Palestine Conferences early in 1939 nor d’d the
Lmir bimseh mention the differences of opinion between His Majesty’s Govern
rnent ana the Saudi Arabian Government on this question in the course of
interviews with the Secretary of State and Sir L. Oliphant. Activity during
this year was confined to an inconclusive exchange of views between the Fore en
Office and the India Office in continuation of the attempt to discover some aS
basis for the final settlement of the question of the south .eastern from
During the first six months of 1940 there were no developments at aH
iers.
Eastern Department, June 30. 1940.