CONFIDENTIAL Record of a talk between H.E. the Political Resident and Shaikh Shakhbut bin Sultan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and his brother Shaikh Zaid at Abu Dhabi on February 24, 1957 H.E., who was accompanied by the Political Officer and Arab Assistant, opened by telling the Ruler how sorry he was that he had not been able to get down to Abu Dhabi for so long. He hoped, however, that there would never be so lengthy a gap between his visits in future. He then invited the Ruler to bring up any matters he wished to discuss. The Ruler replied that, as H.E. was his guest, it was up to him to initiate the discussions. H.E. said he proposed to deal first with the question of the ownership of Halul and the land frontier with Qatar. He told the Ruler that H.M.G. had decided that the best way to tackle the problem of Halul would be to appoint an eminent personage to act as arbitrator or "referee". This referee would examine the evidence, written and verbal, put forward by the Qatar and Abu Dhabi governments, and advise H.M.G., who would then announce their decision about the ownership of the island. H.E. hoped the Ruler would accept this proposal. The Ruler replied that there was no dispute between him and the Ruler of Qatar over their frontiers. His dispute was with the two oil companies, Petroleum Concessions Limited and Shell, who had established their bases in his territory, P.C.L. (now Qatar Petroleum Company) at Umm Said and Shell near Halul. Nine years ago, when P.C.L. showed signs of preparing a base at Umm Said thereby recognising this as Qatar territory, he had protested in writing to their representative, Mr. Lermitte, but the company had continued their operations without taking any notice of his protest. Later, however, the matter was referred to H.M.G., but again without result. In regard to Halul, Shell had, despite his protests, operated for several months in an area which he regarded as his. H.E. replied that whatever action the companies may have taken in the disputed areas, they had acted with the knowledge of H.M.G. The Ruler's dispute lay, therefore, not with the companies but with H.M.G. The Ruler said he could not follow this. Before P.C.L. appeared on the scene there was no frontier problem, since everyone knew where his frontiers lay. The company were wholly to blame for the present state of affairs. H.E. said he could not accept this. The company had no say in purely political matters such as the determination of a frontier. He then suggested that it would be simpler to deal first with the problem of Halul, since no oil company was operating in that area, Shell having withdrawn their rig from the vicinity of the island. The Ruler said he could not agree. Halul was an uninhabited island of no great importance. The first matter to be dealt with should be Urim Said; but essentially the two problems were one. H.E. then suggested that the Ruler might agree to an arbitrator collecting information about every aspect of his frontier problem, since without such information it would be impossible ever to reach a satisfactory solution. To this the Ruler replied that the facts were well known and / that
