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140 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

in London agreed on the matter, and in the following year it
discussed the following recommendations of a meeting of the Com­
mittee of Imperial Defence:

That, with a view to the settlement of the South Eastern Frontiers
of Saudi Arabia on lines acceptable to Ibn Saud, the Foreign
Office and India Office should be authorized to take up the
question of the cession by the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi of a strip
of territory in the Persian Gulf known as the Khor-cl-Odcid:
and that, should compensation in the form of a cash payment
prove necessary, the expenditure of a sum tentatively estimated
at £25,000 for this purpose should be provisionally authorized,
subject to the usual arrangements for obtaining Treasury sanction.64
Thus, in order to ensure the goodwill of Saudi Arabia, the CID
suggested that Shakhbut sell a portion of his territory that the
British Government had for years regarded as an intrinsic part
of Abu Dhabi. It also suggested that the British Government pay
for the sale. It must be remembered here that only ten years
earlier, and despite treaty regulations that explicitly promised the
shaykhdoms protection from attack by sea, the Treasury had refused
to sanction the sum of merely 5000 rupees (around £250) as compen­
sation to the victims of the Iranian seizure of an Arab vessel
near Tunb. Viewed within this context, the CID proposal demon­
strates that British policy towards the Trucial States was governed
by the changing requirements of British interests in the area.
The CID suggestion was strongly opposed by both the Government
of India and the India Office. No conclusions were reached, and
the matter was left in abeyance during the Second World War.
It was not until 1949, when Saudi Arabia first put forward its
claim to Liwa and Buraimi, that it was taken up again.

I