Page 181 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

Use of Sittra pier by Petroleum Conccssio?is Ltd 169

Confidential. Political Agency,
Bahrain,
No.C/R-410 2nd August, 1950.

Will you please refer to paragraph 5 of your
minute (No.155/38/50 of 7th July, 1950) in which a men­
tion was made of the fact that the Company have agreed
to a Customs duty of 5,625% on alcohol?

2. Wilton has already raised the question of the
provisions of Article 6 of the Treaty of 1916 on the
question of Customs dues. Apparently during discus­
sions on the subject of the Customs staff at Zakrit
being paid by the Government rather than by the Company,
Plant said that it would be necessary for him to find
some way to recoup the loss of some Rs.1,000/- a month
which the Government would incur by such an arrangement
and asked whether Article 6 of the Treaty which limits
Customs dues to five per cent on British goods was not
a little out of date. Wilton's reply to this was that
since the treaty had only just come into force after
30 years in abeyance, he doubted whether it was the
time to start tinkering with it.

3. I now see from your minute referred to above
that P.C.L. appear to have permitted the infringement
of this provision of the Treaty without even referring
the matter to us. It is possible that the Qatar Gov­
ernment may be regarding this as a test case and if
no objection is received, they may start to raise the
level of Customs dues all round. Presumably one of the
arguments they will use is that Bahrain is no longer
forced to abide by the similar provision in Article 4
of the Treaty of 1861. (So far as I can see from the
files here, the Bahrain Government appear to have en­
hanced their duties on alcoholic liquors to 15% and on
luxury goods to 10% in December of 1932. I cannot
find that the matter was referred to H.M.G, at that
time, so I am not aware if this increase was ignored
by mutual consent or whether there had been some escape
clause previous to this.) In any case in view of the
bad example offered to Qatar by the irresponsible at­
titude of Saudi Arabia in the matter of Customs dues and
other impositions on goods and travellers, I feel we
should not let the Shaikh depart from the provisions of
the 1916 Treaty except with our explicit consent. Would
you please let me know if you consider the matter should
be taken up?
l)o\Xw
)
His Excellency Mr C.J. Pelly, O.B.E.,
Ag. Political Resident, Persian Gulf,
Bahrain.

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