مجموعة ٣٠/ ٣٣ "الخليج الفارسي، الساحل المتصالح. سياسة حكومة بريطانيا. قائمة شيوخ الساحل المتصالح" [و‎‎١‎١‎٢] (٨١٨/٢٢٣)

.mining do zne question of oil development, COLONEL FOWLE
gave it as his view that, if American engineers were killed
^n tn^. iiucicil ooa.st, and the United States Government
appealed to His Majesty's Government to take action, the
rigiii. course would he to make the nearest Sheikh responsible
and inform him that he must pay appropriate compensation,
failing which his town would be bombarded by sea or bombed
from the air.
He quoted a recent case in which a dhow had been looted
by natives at Debai. There, by making the Sheikh responsible
the matter had been successfully liquidated and no inter
ven'don had been necessary. The Resident, however, still
maintained that His Majesty's Government could prevent any
foreign engineer from going to such a place at all.
CAPTAI 1 I PHILLIPS said that the A.dmiralty were in general
agreement with the views of Colonel Fowle. They would prefer
to see His Majesty’s Government keep a free hand by avoiding
any unnecessary new commitments. As he understood the
niotory of Inis question, the reason for confining guarantees
to the sea in the past was that the physical arguments against
any guarantee covering land operations had been very strong,
whereas protection from the sea was an easy matter. The
advent of aeroplanes had undoubtedly made possible many
operations which previously could not be undertaken, but he
was not convinced that it could be said to-day that they alone
could uphold a guarantee by land, and that if we gave such a
guarantee there was no chance of our being involved in mili
tary operations. The case of the Sheikh of Mohammerah had
shewn that guarantees were two-edged, and he thought that His
Majesty's Government should beware of them. In Qatar the
offer of a guarantee had clearly been the trump card in the
hands of His Majesty's Government who had thought the offer
of it worth while. It would, no doubt, be a trump card in
other places too, but, in that event, we should, he thought, be
careful not to play it too soon. His Majesty's Government should