مجموعة ٣٥/ ٤١ "الخليج الفارسي: الاتصالات الهاتفية اللاسلكية بين البحرين، والبر الرئيسي للمملكة العربية السعودية (الظهران) لاستخدام شركة كاليفورنيا للزيت القياسي" [و‎‎٣‎٥‎٠] (٩٨٢/٧٠٤)

BY AIR MAIL .
CONFIDENTIAL
Hr°
^ [rt, you airedt? As the correspondence which he has sent to you discloses,
we take objection to the practice adopted by the California Arabian
Standard Oil Co. in Hasa of using a short wave wireless transmitter
fitted in one of their launches to communicate direct with the
United States of America. It is quite true that a ship on the high
seas which is duly authorised to carry wireless by the country of
registry is entitled to work with any wireless station it pleases,
but the practice of handing over telegrams from land, where there
is an international system of communication, to a ship or launch to
be transmitted after it has gone beyond territorial waters, as we see
it is irregular and contrary to the intention of the International
Regulations. We are not concerned to preserve Cable and Wireless
rights in Saudi Arabia, but we are concerned to ensure that no
information should be transmitted by wireless en clair or in an
ordinary commercial code which might be of value to the enemy.
Probably 95% of the messages sent by the Oil Co. refer solely to
internal administrative details which are of no value whatsoever to
anyone except themselves, but the odd 5% may convey information,
possibly about the movement of tankers, which it is most important
that the enemy should not learn.
Simla.
D.O. No. D. 4456~N/41« Datek the 27th September 1941.
~ A.
£ TO 1
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19 4 1
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Will you please refer to Prior r s demi-official letter
of the 3th September 1941 1 of which he has sent a copy
to
2. The refusal of the local officials of the Oil Co. to
comply with the wishes expressed by the Political Agent, Bahrain,
on our behalf denotes a somewhat unexpected deterioration in their
standards of cooperation. Ashley, whom we asked to intervene, is a
California Standard man and was extremely surprised to hear of the
attitude adopted by Dhahran. He himself offered to communicate with
the head office in the U.S.A. and stated the belief that if he did
so there would be little doubt that instructions would be issued to
Dhahran to comply with our wishes. As however his expectation has
not been fulfilled, we would nov; suggest that the matter be raised
with the Company *s representative in London. We do not wish to be
heavy-handed over this matter, though presumably it would be
possible to ask Ibn Baud to prohibit the use of wireless
installations in launches based on any port in Hasa in view of
and Wireless*^ rights in Arabia and the Oil Company f s obvious
intention of defeating those rights, perhaps if you would be
willing to discuss with Ballantyne^ the matter could be settled
amicably enough.
3. A copy of this letter is being sent to Prior.
Cable