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*4 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

of Sharjah asked that the compensation be paid in terms of diyah,
the India Office decided to agree.27 There seemed no point in
bargaining on an obscure detail of payment; the most important
point was to impress the rulers with the seriousness of the situation.
Furthermore, fear of intrigues by Socal on the Trucial Coast urged
that negotiations get under way soon. By December 1936 Sharjah
and Ras al-Khaimah had accepted the security clause,28 and in
1 February 1937 Shaykh Rashid of Ajman followed suit.29
Having agreed to compromise on the question of compensation,
Fowle and the India Office were not prepared to go further, and
wished to encourage the completion of concessions as soon as possible.
i
Although Shaykh Sa‘id of Dubai entered negotiations soon after
signing the security clause, there was little sign that the others
would to the same. By November 1936 it had become clear to
Fowle and the Political Agent in Bahrain that, aware of possibly
greater reward from Socal, the rulers were unwilling to commit
themselves to Petroleum Concessions. Suspicion of the machinations
of Socal continued despite the visit to the India Office in October
193^ of Ballantyne (a representative of the Bahrain Petroleum Com­
pany) on behalf of the California company. Ballantyne officially
expressed Socal’s interest in the Trucial Coast. Although its represen­
tatives had been approached by the various rulers there, Socal
wanted first to inform the British Government of its intentions.30
The India Office made it clear to Ballantyne that Petroleum Conces­
sions had the priority on the coast, because of the D’Arcy options,
and that the British Government could not approve of any approach
to the rulers by a competitor.31
The reasoning for this was clear. Although Petroleum Concessions
was not owned exclusively by British interests, it operated as a
British company in that its personnel, finances and outlook were
British. In the absence of a fully British company, it served to
exclude a completely foreign company. Socal was regarded with
the greatest fear. Its concession in Saudi Arabia was assigned to
the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (Casoc), which in
1936 brought in the Texas Company (now Texaco) on an equal
basis.32 Casoc’s concession in eastern Saudi Arabia raised the problem
of the Saudi boundary with Qatar and Abu Dhabi. It was known
that Casoc was seeking from Ibn Sa‘ud an extension of its concession
so that it would cover the whole area that the king claimed in
eastern Arabia; if this were granted before Petroleum Concessions
established itself in Abu Dhabi, the fait accompli would ruin all
hopes of negotiations over the boundary. Thus it was crucial that
Petroleum Concessions should quickly negotiate concessions of its
own—especially in view of news that the American company was
resorting to subterfuge.