Page 310 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

248 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
and before the British Government concluded the Agreement of 1916
with Qatar,1 the Shaikhs of Bahrain claimed sovereignty over the
whole peninsula of Qatar which they held to be tributary to them.2
The British Government of India took the view as early as 1873
that the Shaikh of Bahrain
had no clear or important rights in Qatar and that he should be restrained,
as far as possible, from raising complications on the mainland.
The British Government, therefore, advised the successive Shaikhs of
Bahrain, on various occasions thereafter, to relinquish their claim to
Qatar, or to Zubarah, but the Shaikhs did not accept this advice.3
Moreover, the British Government, specifically, undertook by Article
11 of the unratified Anglo-Turkish Convention of 29 July 1913 not to
allow the interference of the Shaikh of Bahrain in the internal affairs of
al Qatar, his endangering the autonomy of that area or his annexing it.4
At present, the Shaikh of Bahrain claims Zubarah, firstly, because
it was his ancestors’ home, and, secondly, because it is inhabited by
the Nu'aim tribe who owe him their allegiance. He regards the
Nifaim tribe, who settled in Zubarah as early as 1874, as his subjects
over whom he should exercise jurisdiction while they arc staying in
Zubarah.5
In 1937, the Nu'aim complained to the Shaikh of Bahrain that the
Shaikh of Qatar tried to establish a customs post in Zubarah. As a
result, the Shaikh protested to the British Government against what
he termed to be an interference by Qatar in the affairs of his people.
Subsequently, the British Government arranged for negotiations to
take place between the parties for the settlement of the dispute be­
tween them, but no satisfactory solution was reached.6
Again, in 1949, an attempt was made, through the mediation of
C. J. Pelly, the British Political Agent at Bahrain, to reach a modus
vivendi between Bahrain and Qatar on this question.7 It is understood
that in the negotiations which were held in Bahrain, the Shaikh of
Bahrain agreed to disclaim the ownership of oil resources which might
be discovered in Zubarah, provided that the Shaikh of Qatar agreed
1 See above, Chapter 4. 3 See above, Chapter 3.
3 Sec Lorimcr, pp. 815-16. 4 See Hurewitz, I, p. 271.
6 Belgrave, op. cit., pp. 152-4. And see Kelly, J. B., ‘Sovereignty and Jurisdiction
in Eastern Arabia’, International Affairs, 34 (1958), p. 18. Dr Kelly presents the
Shaikh of Bahrain’s argument about his claim to Zubarah by saying that in answer
to the assertion that he cannot exercise jurisdiction over people who arc within
the territory of another State, the Shaikh argues that ‘the sea coast of Qatar cannot
automatically be taken to constitute the maritime frontier of that State to the
exclusion of his claim to Zubarah, especially as the coast has not explicitly been
recognised as such a frontier in any written agreement’.
6 Belgrave, op. cit., p. 154; Bahrain Government, Annual Report, op. cit.
7 Belgrave, op. cit., pp. 157-8.