Page 323 - Records of Bahrain (2) (i)_Neat

314 Records of Bahrain

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Persian Crown, Bincc we have contracted engagements
with the Arab Sheikhs of the island as independent
Chiefs, and since the maintenance of their indepen­
dence is indispensable to the successful working of
those plans of Maritime Police in the Persian Gulf*
which we have been at so much pains and expense to
establish.”

13. Prom the year 1820, in which these mutual
obligations were first incurred, the British Government
has in all respects regarded and dealt with Bahrein as an
^independent Stato.yit will be within your Grace’s re­
collection that in the autumn of 1868, when it became
necessary to inflict punishment on its Chiefs,•Ali bin
Khalifa and Mahomed bin Khalifa, for the injuries
which they had, in conjunction with the Chief of
Aboothabcc, committed on the G;uttur tribes, no refer­
ence to any Sovereign Power of Asia was made or
deemed necessary before operations were commenced.
The cause of these operations was as follows:—In the
autumn of 18G7 Sheikh Ahmed bin Mahomed bin
Suliman, the representative of Mahomed bin Khalifa
on tho Guttur Coast, unjustly seized a Bedouin of that
coast and deported him to Bahrein. The head-men of
Guttur, finding that expostulation did not avail
to procure the release of the captive, determined to
expel Sheikh Ahmed from their territories, and were
only frustrated in their design by the precipitate flight
of the latter to Bahrein. The Bedouin was. shortly
afterwards liberated, and on tho invitation of Mahomed
bin Khalifa, and under prorhiso of honourable treat­
ment, an envoy was sent from Guttur to negotiate
a better understanding between the two parties. But
no sooner had he reached Bahrein than he was
thrown iuto prison, and, in flagrant violation of Treaty
engagements, an expedition was despatched under Ali
bin Khalifa against his countrymen, On its way
to the coast the flotilla from Bahrein fell in "'ill*
__ j boats of the Guttur tribes and captured them.
some
Overtures for assistance were next made by Mahomed bin
Khalifa to the Chiefs of Aboothabcc and Debnye, "'hie*
were listened to by the former in violation of the com ^
lions of the perpetual truce concluded in 1803 b) 10
Chiefs, to which the
British Government with the Arab