Page 250 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

238 Records of Bahrain
I

A dooioion on thooo lines may not be ontiroly
satisfactory to the Oil Companies concerned as there

would be always the possibility that a company which
had obtained a concession for the unallotted aroa of
Bahrein under the impression that it included the l
i
Hawar Islands Group, might be subsequently faced with
a decision that after all the Sheikh of Qatar had

substantiated a claim to the Islands on the basis
of evidence not at present available, On the other
hand, suoh a possibility is very remote and an oil
company could, in obtaining a concession, make a i
proviso to the effect that payments under the
s
concession might have to be revised if it subsequently
turned out that the area was smaller than that

envisaged at the time of the grant of the concession.
This matter is coming up for discussion on
Thursday afternoon at an intcr-Departmental Conference
and it is submitted that, unless the meeting dissents,

it should be laid down by His Majesty'6 Government
that, on the basis of the evidence at present before
them, Hawar appears to belong to the Sheikh of Bahrein
and that the burden of disproving the Sheikh of Bahreir 's
claim lies on any other potential claimant, A
decision in this sense might be oonveyed at once
to the Sheikh of Bahrein and to Petroleum Concessions
Limited v/ho have raised the question.

(II). Question of direct negotiations In London
between the Sheikh of Bahrein and oil interests in
regard to the unallotted area. Please see Resident's P.Z.4582/38.
Expre33 Letter of the 22nd June, Ho. c/77 of 1936. In
that letter the Resident suggests that negotiations
might be carried on under auspices of tho India Office

betwoen/