Page 327 - Records of Bahrain (2) (i)_Neat

liecmds of liahrcir.

( 10 )
to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign
Y.-S.r* •». Jyj . .
Affairs, that "to substitute the
AftS 1«0. distant ar.i ineffective authority
of Persia for the direct responsibility of the local Chief
to the power which controls the Maritime Police of the
Gulf would.he fatal to the policy which has so long and
advantageously been maintained ia that part oi the
world.” But your Grace was wiliiog that if, on any future
occasion, it became needful :o call the Chief of Bahrein
to account for'any breach of his engagements to the
British Government and to coerce him, information
should, as a matter of courtesy, he conveyed bcforc-
nand to the Persian Government. To this suggestion
Lord Clarendon agreed, and a clause to that effect
was inserted in a letter addressed by the English
foreign OfGce in April last to the Persian Charge
d'affaires at the Court of St. James. In accordance
therewith, when it was determined to resort to hostile
operations against the pirate Chiefs towards the close
of last year, intimation of our intention was, as a mailer of
fr,,:n colonel iv,iv to courtesv, conveyed to Mr. Thomson
tl,rou£h our KcsWcnt at Busl,irc*
7. «U!oi 2otii Junwj 1870. and from the enclosure to the
despatch of your Grace’s Assistant Secretary in the
Secret and Political Department, dated December 2ilh
last, we have learnt that the Persian Minister for
Porcign Affairs was, on the day after the despatch of
our Resident's telegram, informed accordingly by the
first Moonshcc of the Ministry at Teheran.
10. Mahomed bin Khalifa; while residing at
Bahrein, began to intrigue against his brother, Ali
bin Khalifa, who found it needful to deport him
to Koweit, from which place lie afterwards removed to
Kulccf, in order to be near Bahrein and watch events.
In September last we learnt that lie had, without any
provocation, put to sea, had landed on the Island of
Bahrein, .and had attacked and plundered its two
principal towns, .Moharrag and Mcnamn. In tins
undertaking he was assisted by Mahomed bin Ab­
doulin, the son of the Ex-Sheikh, who died ,u*
1818, and by another relative named Nassir bin
Mobnrik. In the engagement which took place Ali bin
Khalifa was killed, and with him several other Sheikhs
of note. Thereafter Mahomed bin Abdoolln sr|xrt
Mahomed bin Khalifa and his son and threw them i,,l°