Abstract: This file primarily concerns the delimitation of the Saudi-Yemeni frontier, following the conclusion of the Treaty of Taif in 1934. It includes discussion of the following: the geographical position of the Beni Malik [Bani Malik], Abadil [ʿAbādil] and Ahl Faifa [Ahl Fayfa] tribes; amendments to a pre-existing sketch map of the frontier; arrangements made by both parties of the treaty for the delimitation of the frontier.Correspondents include the following: His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires, Jedda (Albert Spencer Calvert); His Majesty's Minister, Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); officials of the Foreign Office and the British Legation at Jedda.In addition to correspondence, the file includes a copy of the aforementioned sketch map (enclosed in an envelope), and a copy of a translation of an extract from the Treaty of Taif.The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 25; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 1-24; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: This file consists almost entirely of copies (forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India) of printed reports sent either by the His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard), or, in the Minister's absence, by His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires (Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, succeeded by Albert Spencer Calvert), to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Most of the reports cover a two-month period and are prefaced by a table of contents. The reports discuss a number of matters relating to the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd (later Saudi Arabia), including internal affairs, frontier questions, foreign relations, the Hajj, and slavery.The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 400; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The leather cover wraps around the documents; the back of the cover has not been foliated.A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: This file primarily relates to oil concessions in Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coast. Much of the correspondence discusses the progress and outcome of negotiations between the Saudi Government and Petroleum Concessions Limited.The correspondence includes discussion of the following:Whether the Farsan Islands will be included in the Red Sea coast concession.Foreign Office concerns that one or more non-British companies (from the United States, France, or Italy) might compete with Petroleum Concessions for the concession.A trip to Jedda in late 1936, undertaken by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Micklem, a director of Selection Trust Limited, a British company interested in securing a mining concession from the Saudi Government.The file features the following principal correspondents: His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan, succeeded by Sir Reader William Bullard); His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires, Jedda (Albert Spencer Calvert); officials of the Foreign Office.The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 2).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 78; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This volume relates to the eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia and the southern boundary of Qatar.Much of the correspondence discusses the legal and international position of what is referred to as the 'blue line' (the frontier which marked the Ottoman Government's renunciation of its claims to Bahrain and Qatar, as laid down in the non-ratified Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 and redefined and adopted in the Anglo-Ottoman convention of the following year), which is regarded by the British as the eastern boundary of Saudi Arabia, but is disputed by the Saudi Government, mainly on the grounds that it is no longer correct, following various developments during the years since the line was demarcated.British concerns regarding these boundaries follow a recent oil concession for the Hasa [Al Hasa] region of Saudi Arabia, granted by the Saudi Government to the Standard Oil Company of California, as well as reports of the possibility of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company securing an oil concession in Qatar.Related matters discussed in the correspondence include the following:The British policy regarding the blue line.The views of India Office and Foreign Office officials, as well as other British officials (most notably Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, former Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Harold Richard Patrick Dickson, Political Agent at Kuwait), regarding the demarcation of the southern boundary of Qatar.British concerns regarding the land lying between the blue line and the southern boundary of Qatar, as recognised by the Sheikh of Qatar [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī].A request for a copy of the 1913 Anglo-Ottoman Convention, submitted by the United States Embassy in Angora [Ankara] – reportedly on behalf of the United States' State Department – to its British counterpart, and the wider significance of this request in relation to the United States' oil interests in the region.Foreign Office concerns that aerial survey work carried out by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc) in relation to its Hasa oil concession might extend beyond the blue line.The volume features the following principal correspondents: His Majesty's Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle); the Political Agent, Kuwait (Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson); the Secretary of State for India (Samuel Hoare); the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India; the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs; officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Admiralty, and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department.In addition to correspondence, the volume includes extracts from Bahrain political intelligence reports and minutes of meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, which concern the Qatar boundary.Whilst the volume contains material dating from 1923 to 1934, the vast majority of the material dates from 1934. The French material consists of a short extract from the aforementioned Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, which is contained in copies of an India Office memorandum on the southern boundary of Qatar.The volume includes two dividers which give a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (folios 3-4).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 374; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The front and back covers have not been foliated.
Abstract: The file consists of correspondence regarding the supply of arms and ammunition to Ibn Sa'ūd and the Imam of Yemen, in the context of the British policy not to favour either side in their territorial dispute. The principal correspondents are the India Office, the War Office, the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, and the Chief Commissioner of Aden (Bernard Reilly).The file opens with correspondence regarding the policies of HMG and the Government of India, and a confirmation that Ibn Sa'ud had not received arms from Britain since the 1929 Mutair rebellion. The embargo on transporting arms to Yemen is then discussed, as well as the decision that the embargo be lifted in order to maintain British impartiality. Correspondence with the Aden Chief Commissioner concerns the transport of arms, ammunition and troops from Aden to Yemen, and the application of the Indian Arms Act (1878) to Aden waters.The file contains a small quantity of correspondence with Lloyd's of London (insurance brokers) dated 1936, regarding permission to underwrite arms shipments to Hodeidah [Al Hudaydah] and Jeddah [Jiddah].The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 1).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 56; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: The file is concerned with proposals for the construction of an airfield – suitable for very heavy bombers – at Dhahran by the United States Army Air Transport Command as a wartime necessity, and applications from the United States to the United Kingdom for the latters support in obtaining permission from Saudi Arabia. See folios 239-241 for a brief on these proposals.The file also contains papers related to proposals for the post-war civil operation following the construction of the airfield, and the transfer of ownership from the United States to Saudi Arabia. Related papers concern proposals from Trans World Airlines for the development of civil aviation in Saudi Arabia, and counter proposals from the British Government for a civil air mission. This includes the use of Dhahran by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).A typed copy of a report by a Ministry of Civil Aviation Technical Survey Party on aerodromes in the Middle East and Persian Gulf (1947) has also been included: see folios 26-55. The minutes of a subsequent meeting held by the Civil Aviation Planning Committee on 1 April 1947 to discuss the reports findings can be found on folios 18-19.The main correspondents in the file are as follows: HM Minister at Jeddah (Sir Laurence Grafftey-Smith), officials of the Foreign Office, officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and officials of the India Office (Commonwealth Relations Office from August 1947).The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 260; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: This file contains correspondence regarding pearl diving in the Persian Gulf, primarily in Bahrain. The majority of this correspondence is between British officials but the file also contains correspondence from a number of external parties interested in gaining access to the Persian Gulf pearl market. The British officials are from the Board of Trade, the Government of India, the Political Agency in Bahrain and the Political Residency in Bushire (Bahrain after 1946).Much of the correspondence contained in the file relates to an attempt by British authorities to find an alternative export market for Persian Gulf pearls after the newly independent Government of India imposed a ban on the importation of these pearls into the country.The file also contains correspondence related to the importation of dates from the Gulf into India, the granting of a pearl diving concession in Saudi Arabia and several other matters that primarily relate to external parties enquiring for information regarding the Gulf's pearling industry.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 166; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-163; these numbers are also written in pencil and are circled, but are crossed through.