IOR/R/15/1/606

The volume’s contents relate to ongoing negotiations between the British and Saudi Governments over the formal establishment of Saudi Arabia’s southern and eastern borders. The volume, which is a continuation of correspondence found in IOR/R/15/1/605, focuses on land which is covered by the Qatar Oil Concession, and is disputed by King ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd (Ibn Sa‘ūd) of Saudi Arabia and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī of Qatar. The volume’s principal correspondents are Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, Political Agent in Bahrain, and Andrew Ryan, British Minister at Jeddah.

Contents of the volume include:

• Correspondence relating to the arrangements and outcome of a Royal Air Force (RAF) aerial reconnaissance survey, conducted in October 1935, over Qatar’s projected southern boundaries;
• A map showing the reconnaissance route (folio 74B), a number of aerial photographs (folios 75-81), and a report of the reconnaissance (folios 72-73) are included in the volume;
• The Saudi Government’s response to the signing of an oil concession between the Shaikh ‘Abdullāh and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company;
• British objections to direct communication between Ibn Sa‘ūd and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh, with the assertion that such communication contravenes treaties signed with the British Government; discussion over the extent of Abu Dhabi’s territory, including a telegrammed report, written by Loch, dated 4 November 1935, of a conversation with Shaikh Shakbut bin Sultan of Abu Dhabi over his territories (folios 92-94);
• An RAF sketch map of the Qatar Peninsula (folio 146);
• A report of a conversation in January 1936 between Loch and Shaikh ‘Abdullāh concerning Qatar’s southern boundaries, with a sketch map included (folios 190-95);
• Suggestions of an earlier agreement between Qatar and the Saudi Kingdom predating Britain’s 1916 treaty with Qatar.