Page 238 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf - Vol II) 1907-1953

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interest of the Ruler of Qatar. This agreement does not affect the agreement with
the Oil Company in Qatar whose rights are protected.
(Signed) ABDULLAH BIN QASIM AL THANI,
Ruler of Qatar.
(Signed) SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHAL1FAH,
Ruler of Bahrain.
(ii)
(Paragraph 34)
Letter, dated March 2, 1948. from the Ruler of Bahrain to the Political Agent,
Bahrain
I have the honour to draw your attention to our meeting with the Honourable
the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf on the 17th February, 1948, during which
Your Excellency and our Adviser were present when we discussed the question of
our and our subjects’ rights in the territory of Zubarah in Qatar Peninsula:
I pointed out that during the last ten years the Shaikh of Qatar possessed
himself of all our property there and introduced many innovations. As you asked
us to furnish details of our property and the property of our subjects in Zubarah,
we give below some details pertaining to the places and other things belonging to
us. We cannot adduce conclusive proofs as you did not agree to our proposal to
send our men to take photographs of the places and the buildings. Further, in
many cases the Shaikh of Qatar destroyed and pulled down the buildings which
had been possessed by our relations and subjects before the dispute between Qatar
and Bahrain rose.
L There is the Zubarah territory which was built by our forefathers and in
which exist the graves of our forefathers as well as those of 6 Shaikhs of the ruling
family who were entombed near the Qal’at (castle). There are the mosques in
Zubarah which were built by the Al-Khalifah, the wells, the walls of the Qal’at
and the other houses extending from the Qal’at to the beach. On the beach there
are the fish-traps which belong to our subjects and which were being exploited by
them until the commencement of the hostilities. These fish traps which are of
different kinds, are the property of our subjects—to name some of them—the
Al-Bin-Ali of Muharraq and the Al-Ka’ban and others, who are residing in
Halat-Um-Al-Baidh.
2. The houses which are in Mirair where fish traps are erected too. At
Um-Al-Ma’ there are fish traps and houses which until recently some belonged to
us and some to our relations. There are also the houses belonging to the
Al-Mutawwa and their families who are our subjects and who are at present living
in Bahrain.
3. There are the houses and the wells in Lisha’ which belong to us and which
were built and dwelt in by our people; Fadhil bin Muhanna Ni’aimi was living
there until the outbreak of the disturbances.
4. At Um-Al-Ma’, Rubaijah and Furaihat there are Hadhrat (fish traps) and
Masakirs (fish traps built of stone) the right of ownership of which vests in our
subjects, who inherited them—son from father.
5. We are the rightful owners of the wells which are in Zubarah, Lisha’,
Halwan and in Masikah; they were dug out and utilised by us for land cultivation.
All these places are known to all the Arabs both in Bahrain and Qatar and
we do not believe that there is anybody who denies their having been in our
possession before the dispute. Some of our relations resided in these places and
erected fish traps as they did during the time the Al-Khalifah were living at
Zubarah. Before this dispute we had not been noticing any interference on the
part of the Shaikh of Qatar and we as well as our subjects, had been faring across
between Bahrain and Zubarah with complete freedom, and without any obstacle
rising in our way. Nor had ever been any dispute over our rights before this
incident—when we wanted men in Bahrain we used to fetch them from Zubarah. l
Those who lives in Zubarah were subject to our rule. We and our subjects used
to travel between Bahrain and Zubarah with full freedom and every year to send
our cattle to Zubarah for grazing there without any tax or demurrage being levied
or permission being obtained for going or coming, the reason being that for a
hundred and odd years the Al-Khalifah ruled over Zubarah and Bahrain. We
on our part did not cause any harm to the Shaikh of Qatar and his subjects.
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