Page 334 - Records of Bahrain (2) (i)_Neat

Persian and Turkish claims to Bahrain, 1870-1874 325

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Government the state, of the case, ns he had elicited
it on the spot. He expresses no opinion, and apparently,
not having received the full details whioh we have, has
acquiesced in the Persian Government’s view of the ease.
But the Persian Government to judge by his account has
taken no notice of the fact that Hajeo Ahd Alee was
trying to run a blockade of which due intimation
had been given at Teheran ; it docs not explain why
he was sailing under Arab colours; the admission that
he was acting as ils Agent differs from Hajee Abd
Alec’s own statement that he had no authority from the
Persian Government, but was merely the Deputy of
Uyder Khan, Chief of Dashtcc; it ignores the fact
that Hajee Abd Alee wished to be allowed to hand
over his letters to the Resident, and to be accorded
leave to depart; and though correct in saying that he did
not deliver the letters to the addressee, it overlooks the
fact that they were made over to Mahomed bin Abdoolla
by the Resident in the same condition as that in which
he had received them, and that Hajee Abd Alee was
informed that this had been done. In speaking of
possible coercion of the Arab Chiefs of the Littoral
it assumes an authority which the British Government,
whilst responsible for the peace of the Gulf and bound
1 by positive engagements with the Chiefs to prevent such
measures, could not allow the Persian Government to
exercise, even if it had a flotilla at its command. In
styling Mahomed bin Abdoolla Chief of Bahrein the
Persian Government forgets that lie had neither by right
nor by possession claim to this title. Finally, ils present
advocacy of his claims to supreme authority in the
island is distinctly opposed to the statement pre­
viously made by the Persian Foreign Minister to Mr.
Thomson, and recorded by tho latter in his despatch
to Lord Clarendon (No. 81), which we have already
referred to, that on Ali bin Khalifa’s death the
firman of appointment which had already been issued
from Teheran in the murdered Chief’s name, was
altered in favour of his brother, Mahomed bin
Khalifa, and not in the name of Mahomed bin
Abdoolla as staled by Mchdcc Khan. But whatever the
explanation of this immaterial discrepancy, the claims
of the Persian Government to sovereignty oyer Bahrein
aro undisguiscdly set forth in both sets of documents,