Rupert Hay – The Persian Gulf States and their Boundaries – 1954

The December 1954 edition of the Royal Geographical Journal, published in London by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS).

Contains a report from the British government’s Political Resident in the Gulf from 1946 to 1953, Rupert Hay, on the nature and history of boundary disputes between the Gulf rulers at the time.

His object was “to give a brief geographical description of the ten Shaikdoms and Muscat, with special reference to the problems to which their boundaries give rise.”

The article is a fascinating account of geography and politics before the formation of the modern-day Gulf, looking at the ten Sheikhdoms (the seven that would make up the UAE, plus Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar)

“Oil has come as a blessing to the Persian Gulf Shaikhdoms and has made them wealthy when they were on the verge of bankruptcy owing to the collapse of the pearl trade on which they previously depended for their livelihood. But it has also given rise to many new problems, and possibly the most important and most difficult of these is the fixation of boundaries by land and sea.

The journal is an original full issue with blue wrappers, containing all ads, and articles on other topics including an Australian antarctic expedition, a coalfield in South Wales and Easter Island. In very good condition.