Page 142 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

5.32 Records of Bahrain
2.

CONFIDENTIAL
in my despatch In next week's bag. Meanwhile my view is that the
company have little# if any, legal case but that the Ruler has to
some extent let them down in the light of the preliminary work
which they had done and money which they had spent in exploring
the area and in preparing maps and making other investigations. It
is possible that, as the Ruler says, he made some efforts to get
^pco Included in the arrangements but I would not expect that he
. i essed these efforts very hard. He does not love Bapco as he
thinks they have not worked hard enough to find more oil and he
would be quite glad if they gave up bits of their concession so
that he could offer them to another company. (He sometimes
complains that Bahrain is the only country in this part of the
world which does not have more than one company working for it).
On the other hand Bapco may be quite relieved at not having to find
the very large capital required for work in this sea-bed area and
Aramco are clearly much better qualified technically to do the work
in the light of their existing sea-bed operations.
5. The Ruler gives as one of his reasons for accepting the
agreement in its present form that he was against anything more
like a true Neutral Zone because of the complications of dual
sovereignty etc. He thought it would be better for us as well as
him if this was avoided, and I must say the history of our attempts
to legislate for the Kuwait-Saudi Neutral Zone over the last few
years lends some support to this view.
6.
my view that the^uler^ha* * °n agreement 1 am confirmed in
ra"—- --ot

interest into Saudi hands s^f^ waters# in Pitting a Bahrain
and quantity of exolnit-an fa*^ as sovereignty and the method
am convinced that we «=hn and Production are concerned. But I
better agreement and «?0t at Present have been able to get a
in a weak position for ah' f •We dld not llke this one we should be
since we were las? Imp ? 5 t0 U owln9 to the lapse of time
the fundamental weakening *2* with the matter at all and owing to
by drawing the theorpt- to?i °* Bahrain's position which we committed
apparently referred 5! medlan line at the 1951 talks. The Saudis
Shaikh Salman and used ? y!1 again in the negotiations with
boundary line towards its l° JUStify the Position of the new
northern end.
7.
Bahrainanandnwi?hiC°tieS °f thlS letter to the Polltical Agent

(B-A-B. Burrows)
P.S. I have Just rec i
notCvervS made ahur£y £"°i°8ed reProduct I on of the map
whether bUt better th^ ^ J^Pco. U ls rather small and
on tn « hey °an Produce °th‘n9 go on with. We are seeing
°n t0 y°u■ something better and if so I will send It

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