IOR/R/15/2/605

The volume comprises correspondence concerning the ongoing dispute between the Rulers of Bahrain and Qatar over the sovereignty of Zubarah and the surrounding area on the Qatar Peninsula. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Cornelius James Pelly; Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Crawshaw Galloway), the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay), the Ruler of Bahrain (Sheikh Salmān bin Ḥamad Āl Khalīfah), and the Ruler of Qatar (Sheikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī).

The volume includes:

• an initial exchange of letters between the Political Agent and the Rulers of Bahrain and Qatar, between February and July 1945, relating to the Ruler of Bahrain’s complaints that some of his subjects had gone to a place called Bruk on the Qatar Peninsula (near Zubarah) to collect wood, and had been harassed by men associated with the Ruler of Qatar (ff 2-41). Underlying the dispute are the differing interpretations of the two Rulers to the agreement, signed by them in June 1944, to restore friendly relations between the states of Bahrain and Qatar, and to restore conditions at Zubarah to what they had been prior to 1936;
• correspondence between the Political Agent and Political Resident, relating to Bahrain-Qatar relations and the 1944 agreement, including: comment on the vagaries of the 1944 agreement (ff 61-63); the difficulties encountered in the handing over of the role of Political Agent from one individual to another; the historical context of Bahrain-Qatar relations, including a note, prepared by the Political Agent (Galloway) on the history of Zubarah, up to the present day (ff 100-107); discussion over the possibility of requesting the Ruler of Qatar to demolish his fort at Zubarah;
• ongoing correspondence amid a stalemate in the disagreement over Zubarah, including: the imposition by the Qatar Customs Officer of export duties on limestone shipped from Qatar to Bahrain (ff 50-54); the Ruler of Bahrain’s agreement that the Al Bu Rumaih tribe be allowed to emigrate from Bahrain to Qatar (ff 95-96); the dispatch of a deputation to Zubarah by the Ruler of Qatar; continued letters, some enclosing petitions, from the Ruler of Bahrain, making his historical claim to Zubarah (ff 125-138);
• correspondence relating to an incident in early 1947, in which an individual from the Al Bu Rumaih tribe, on returning to Qatar, was arrested and imprisoned by the Ruler of Bahrain (ff 167-204). An attempt by the Assistant Political Agent (Captain Hugh Dunstan Rance) to intervene in the matter in the Political Agent’s absence, provoked a strong complaint from the Ruler of Bahrain, which in turn brought a rebuke from the Political Agent (Pelly) on his return. In correspondence exchanged with the Political Resident in the wake of the incident, Pelly suggests that Arab rulers, including the Ruler of Bahrain, are beginning to challenge British orders, in light of Britain’s ‘recessive’ policy in Egypt and India (ff 203-204).