IOR/R/15/2/158

The volume concerns the definition of the eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia with Qatar and Trucial Oman, and negotiations over the boundary between British officials and Ibn Saud (also referred to as Bin Saud) [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd, King of Saudi Arabia].

The principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Political Agent, Bahrain; HM Minister, Jedda [Jeddah] (Sir Andrew Ryan), later the Chargé d'Affaires, Jeddah (Andrew Spencer Calvert); and senior officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Government of India, and the Colonial Office.

The papers cover: Anglo-Saudi negotiations over basing the frontier on the Blue Line [a line drawn by British and Turkish officials in 1913 from the Gulf of Uqair to parallel 20 degrees North, in the Rub al-Khali], and its extension on the side of Aden, the Violet Line; British proposals to base the frontier on a new line, the Green Line; further papers concerning the eastern, south, and south-eastern boundaries of Saudi Arabia; the effect of the proposed boundaries on the sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi; Foreign Office records of discussions between HM Minister, Jedda (Ryan) and the Deputy Saudi Arabian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Fuad Bey Hamza [Fu’ād Ḥamzah]), June-July 1935 (folios 85-102); papers concerning territorial claims of Ibn Saud in eastern and south-eastern Arabia, July 1935 (folios 103-108); investigations into tribal matters (e.g. folio 117); geological surveys and the likely presence of oil in the area (passim); the Qatar boundary (especially folios 136-173); the Qatar oil concession, September 1935 (folios 174-178); and papers concerning an air reconnaissance by British officials, with the assistance of the Royal Air Force (RAF), in order to determine certain key points on the proposed border in the area south of Qatar, October 1935 (folios 196-223).

The Arabic language content of the papers consists of fewer than ten folios, mainly copies of correspondence between Ibn Saud and the Ruler of Qatar [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī].

The date range gives the covering dates for the main items of correspondence; the earliest dated document is an enclosure to the first item of correspondence, dated 22 February 1935, and the last dated addition to the file is an entry in the notes on folio 229 dated 22 October [1935].