Page 131 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

THE PRESENT LEGAL POSITION 69
2. Similarly, the Sultan has deprived himself by the non-alienation
Agreement of 1891,1 of the right to dispose of his territories, by any
means, to any foreign Government, save to the British Government.
This Agreement, which is similar to other agreements concluded
with the Shaikhdoms on such matters, places a further curtailment
on the rights of the Sultan to exercise sovereign acts within his own
dominions.
3. Finally, the Agreements of 1902 and 19232 have yet placed more
limitations on the Sultan’s sovereignty by requiring that he should not
grant coal-fields or oil concessions in his territories to foreign com­
panies, without consulting the British Government. Consequently,
these agreements appear to restrict the Sultan’s right in exploiting
vital resources of his country.
It is noteworthy that in view of the criticisms recently levelled
against these ‘unilateral’ agreements, both the Sultan and the British
Government found it necessary to state their views on the legal status
of the agreements in question. Consequently, the Sultan told the Ad
Hoc Committee on Oman, which interviewed him in 1964, that these
agreements ‘terminated with the death of the Sultan who concluded
them’, unless they contained clauses making them ‘binding on his
heirs and successors’. However, he made an exception to this rule
with respect to the ‘Non-alienation Bond of 1891’ which, he said, has
now become ‘dead’ despite the fact that it ‘had been binding the
Sultan’s heirs and successors’. As regards the ‘Oil Undertaking of
1923’, which was concluded by his father, he stated that it ‘ceased to
have effect on his father’s death and had not affected his freedom of
action on this matter’, since it embodied no succession clause.3 The
British Government's comments on the ‘Non-alienation Bond of
1891’ was contained in its representative’s memorandum to the Com­
mittee which stated:
The essence of this agreement was that while the Government of India
sought no derogation of the Sultan’s independence, the Sultan deferred to
Her Majesty's Government in ensuring that no other power should derogate
from that independence to British disadvantage. (As circumstances changed,
this particular agreement lost its force. It was finally terminated by an ex­
change of letters between the present Sultan and Her Majesty’s Government
in 1958, after having long been regarded as a dead letter.)
Regarding the Sur ‘Coal-fields Undertaking of 1902’, the British
representative did not allude to its termination but informed the
Committee that ‘the parties could make whatever agreements they
chose, although agreements such as this one were less known now
than they used to be’. With respect to the Sultan’s Undertaking of
1 See above, p. 48. 2 Sec above, pp. 48-9.
3 The Ad Hoc Committee on Oman, op. cit., pp. 124-5.