CONFIDENTIAL As regards the claim to large areas ofthe east coast of Qatar - Umm Said and Umm alHul - frequently put forward by ShaikhShakhbut of Abu Dahbi over the last ten yearsor so (and in 1934) - which is not, of course,a new claim -% again consider that the weightof the evidence available in the British Government's archives shows it to be in fact inadmissible. While it may quite possiblybe true that certain of the Abu Dhabi Shaikhsmay in years gone by have from time to timeexercised a certain influence north of Odaia this can only have been very temporary. Thereis no evidence to show that septs of the BeniYas tribal confederation have frequentedanywhere north of the Odaid peninsula. Thereis no evidence either that the BritishGovernment have ever seriously considered -much less recognised - such a claim. Notablywhen the grant of an oil concession by theShaikh of Qatar was being considered in 1934/35by the British authorities there is nothing in the records to show that those authorities -whether the Political Resident, the Governmentof India or the Foreign Office - considered,when deciding (after considerable deliberationand consultation) where the southern limitof the concession area should be fixed in theShaikh of Qatar's own best interests, anyclaim by Abu Dhabi to Umm Said and Umm al Ful.There are moreover certain inconsistencies inthis Abu Dhabi claim. In 1927, only eightyears before the oil concession was granted,the then Shaikh of Abu Dhabi wrote to thePolitical Resident claiming the island ofBushairiyah which lies south of Umm al Ful butdid not mention this latter place, although he laia
