Page 309 - Records of Bahrain (2) (i)_Neat

300 Records of Bahrain

No. 3001\, doted 22nd February 1370.
From C^^Jp^TXHisoN, Ksq., Officiating Sccrofnry to Govt, of Indin, Foreign Dept.
To-r^CjS^WfcdttQ^. Ilcr Majesty's Charg4 d’Affairet, Tohernn.
Wratt'morqncc tojow despatches to Tier Majesty’s Secretary of State
for Forci[to>\MT(ii!re9rNZ0. fe li and Odi, dated respectively November l'lilli and
Dcccmbcr\$/Mjh, 1809, o^vjdiich you have sent a copy direct to the Viceroy,
I have the hoim¥;iby\J(;ldsirc of LI is Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-
General in Council, to enclose, for your information, a copy of a letter from
the Bombay Government, No. 21, dated January 20th, 1870, and of its
enclosures, which show what thole place on the occasion of Hajee Abd
Alee, tho Persian Envoy, recently endeavouring to ran the blockade at Bah­
rein with letters addressed by Persian subjects to the Pirate Chief Mahomed
bin Abdoollah.
2. The facts of the ease, as they are to be gathered from these docu­
ments, are briefly as follows :—
V... On the afternoon of November 19th Inst a •rssei carrying Arab
colours arrived off the harbour of Bahrein. She was armed, and on ap­
proaching the harbour, “ she kept up a fire of cannon.” On trying to break
the blockade, maintained under the authority of the Government of India,
by passing Her Majesty’s Ship Daphne, she was boarded. Shortly after­
wards Hajee Abd Alee, her chief passenger, had an interview with Colonel
Pelly and Captain Douglas, R.N., when he intimated that he was the
bearer of a dress of honor and of a letter from the Prince Governor of Ears
to Mahomed bin Abdoollah and of letters to the same person from Mirza
Mchdcc Khan, for long an employe of the Persian Foreign Office, and from
three Chiefs of Dashtcc. lie said that lie himself was in no way accredited
by the Persian Government, but that Mchdcc Khan had orders from the
Prince Governor of Ears to go as Envoy to Bahrein. As, apparently, it did
not suit Mchdcc Khan’s purpose to comply with this order, he availed him­
self of a letter which he had in his possession from the Prince Governor to
Ilyder Khan, one of the Chiefs of Dashtcc, enjoining the latter to render all
assistance, and he induced the Chief to send Hajee Abd Alee as his (the
Chief’s) deputy. He himself remained at Daycr.
• * 3. Two days after this interview Hajee Abd Alec asked leave
to make over his letters to the Resident, who declined to accept
them until he had obtained instructions from Government. Colonel
Pelly accordingly referred the matter to the Governor of Bombay,
who directed him by Telegraph to take possession of the letters. When
theso orders were received, Colonel Pelly was expecting the speedy
surrender of Mahomed bin Abdoollah. He therefore took the letters,
and on December 2nd, at the first interview which he had with Mahomed
bin Abdoollah, ho delivered them to the Chief in the same condition ns they
had been made over to himself. The latter perused the letters, and then
gave them to Colonel Pelly. The delivery of tho letters to Mahomed bin
Abdoollah was formally announced to Hnjco Abd.'Alco on the same day, and
the latter was informed that, as the blockade had been raised, he was at
liberty to proceed with his vessel when and where ho liked.
4. The Prince Governor of Ears, in his intercepted letter dated
October 1809, which was evidently written after intelligence had been
received of Ali bin Khalifa’s death, confers the Government of Bahrein