Page 264 - Records of Bahrain (7) (ii)_Neat

654 Records of Bahrain

presumably bo on the broad linos that there are

competing claims to the area; these could be argued
out on a legal basis which would take a long time and
be expensive and in tho end satisfy neither party;
Saudi Arabia has all the oil she is ever likely to
want; Bahrain has extremely little in comparison a.nd
no further reserves. Therefore would it not be the part

of a magnanimous Arab Pul or for Baud to give the Ruler
of Bahrain the rights to oil in this area of the seabed
without prejudice to the boundary in other areas?
0. The second method, which 1 cannot find has been

seriously discussed in past correspondence, is that a
neutral zone might bo established over the area of the
present standstill or some other suitable area, by
which Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would agree that they would
each get half of the oil produced in this area. There
would then be an operating agreement between Aramco and
-
Bahrain Petroleum Company by which the former would
no doubt be quite ready to leave the latter to carry
out the operations provided that they received the
Saudi half of the oil if it was found, I mentioned
this possibility on a purely personal basis at the
mooting with the Company representatives referred

to auove. They felt it would be distinctly butter
than nothing and Sir Charles Bolgrave Raid that the
Ruler had often expressed himself in favour of
arrangements of this kind. The chief disadvantage of
it which has occurred to me is that if v/e were to make
a proposal on th so lin ;s to the Saudis we would
indicate that we do not believe Bahrain’s claim to the
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