IOR/R/15/1/608

The volume’s contents relate to Anglo-Saudi negotiations over the extent of Saudi Arabia’s borders, and are a continuation of the contents of file IOR/R/15/1/607. The chief correspondents are a range of British Government officials, including Lawrence Dundas, Secretary of State for India, Reader Bullard, British Minister in Jeddah, and Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.

The volume includes: ongoing discussions between British officials over the precise nature of the Saudi-Oman border; geological surveys undertaken by the Californian Arabian Standard Oil company at Qasr As Salwa [Salwah], close to the projected Qatar-Saudi border; British officials’ response to surveying at Salwah, in relation to the so-called ‘Blue Line’ marking the British Government’s understanding of the extent of Saudi Arabia’s eastern borders; a map of Qatar dated 8 September 1937, showing the projected Saudi-Qatar border (folio 56); continued discussions between Saudi and British officials over the Saudi-Qatar border, including proposals for a ‘topographic mission’ to the disputed area; Foreign Office proposals for the cession of Khor-el-Odeid [’Odaid] to Saudi Arabia, and the implications (discussed in a letter from the Foreign Office dated 1 July 1938, folios 148-59) including financial compensation that would have to be made to the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi should this happen; opposition of the Government of India to Foreign Office proposals for the cession of ’Odaid (folios 178-81).