IOR/R/15/1/604

The volume contains correspondence, memoranda and other papers relating to negotiations that took place in early 1935 between the British and Saudi Arabian Governments, which sought to define the eastern limits of Saudi territory, and their proximity to the British protectorates of Qatar, Bahrain and the Trucial Coast. The principal correspondents in the file are Andrew Ryan, the British Minister at Jeddah, George Rendell of the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office, Eric Beckett, Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office, and Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, Political Agent in Bahrain.

The correspondence details the preparations for, course and outcomes of a number of unofficial and official meetings that took place between Ryan and Fuad Bey Hamza, the Deputy Saudi Arabian Minister for Foreign Affairs, between January and March 1935. Key points discussed include: Bahrain’s transit dues paid on goods, and speculation over Saudi plans to develop its own port at Ras Tanurah [Ra's Tannūrah]; where Qatar’s southern boundary should be established, based on ongoing geological exploration; what form the boundaries between Saudi territory and Britain’s protectorates should take (for example, geographical, tribal, or neutral ‘desert’ zone); and the legal status of Britain’s claims over its Gulf protectorates, specifically whether the British Government could claim territorial sovereignty over them.