Page 92 - Records of Bahrain (3) (ii)_Neat

508 Records of Bahrain

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“ were free to all ” The total gains of the party during the days that they
had been at' work were represented by 23 small seed pearls only, J
The affair, however, was reported to have given rise to some Diicuasion*
apprehension among the pearl divers of Bahrain, and it led to a full regarding
discussion of policy between tl.j Government of Bombay and the British I3viti,h
Residents at Bushehr and Baghdad. Colonel Kcmball, the Resident 1862
at Baghdad, who had long experience of the Persian Gulf, pointed out 1BG3*
that the ease which had occurred was a simple one, and that it would
have been more difficult to deal with had the speculators been European
foreigners holding a pearl fishing concession from some Arab chief; his
final recommendation was that the Government of India should treat
the Persian Gulf as a marc clausum, for the purpose of pearl diving,
against all persons coming from ports or coasts situated beyond its limits,
and should accordingly by proclamation refuse protection to such persons,
whatever their nationality ; action on these lines would, he considered, bo
sufficient to deter Europeans, at least, from interference with the fisheries.
The action of Captain Disbrowc and the views of Colonel Kcmball were
generally approved by the Government of Bombay, but the Resident
in the Persian Gulf was enjoined to observe caution in matters which
affected the rights either of foreigners or of Arabs, and he was ordered to
report on the extent of the pearl banks and the nature of the rules and
customs by which boundaries and rights were governed, as well as on
the manner of settling disputes heretofore, and the best means of preserv­
ing the peace without involving the British Government in an in­
convenient protectorate. Colonel Pclly, the Resident at Bushehr,
on the ground that no practical advantage was likely to be gained,
whereas the suspicions of the Arabs would probably be aroused and
inconvenient claims by Persia, Turkey and the Wahhabi ruler might be
provoked, deprecated inquiry or any attempt to systematise the rights
and customs of the fisheries; and at the same time he suggested that the
proclamation of a mare clausum in the Persian Gulf was a serious step,
which might bring the British Government into conflict with European
or American powers, and that a reserved attitude on the question
would be preferable. In the end, no proclamation was made, and the
demand for detailed information regarding the pearl fisheries was
withdrawn by the Bombay Government.
The international position of the pearl banks attracted no further Mid-hat
attention until 1872, when it became known that Mid-hat Pasha, the. Pasl,as
Turkish Wali of Baghdad, contemplated the exploitation of certain pearl 8C10U3C»
i,;tnks in the Persian Gulf by means of an English diver. The diver
reached Baghdad in May 1872, but a personal warning that
British protection would not be extended to him in his operations
apparently had the desired result, for, in the end, the Turkish scheme was
not carried into effect.
Mcbbis.
In 1873 a British firm, Messrs. Smith and Company, of London, Smith ftm=
endeavoured to obtain a footing as pearl fishers in the Gulf; and in Company'.
October of that year—while a request which they had made to the project,
Foreign office for recognition and assistance was still under consideration 1873.
—their representative in the person of Mr. IV. Grant, an officer of the
late Indian Navy, made his appearance at Bushehr. Here he had an
interview with Colonel Ross, the Political Resident, who declined to