Page 62 - Records of Bahrain (3) (i)_Neat

52 Records of Bahrain

Messrs. Precis Times will eventually establish tlioir title to a restitution
of tho stock of arms which aro still in the custody of the Sheikh, or, in
other words, of tho Government of Bahrom. The main conclusion
indicated by theso facts is that the British Consular authorities in tho
Gulf wero not aware of and wore not responsible for tho seizure com­
plained of; and that Messrs. Pracis Times’ losses at Bahrein aro entirely
distinct from tho other seizures to which their statement refers. Their
claim to restitution doponds on the result of tho legal proceedings
referred to and upon further inquiry into the circumstances.
d). Passing on to tho seizures of tho firm’s arms at Bushire, I am to
observe that thoro is nothing to support oithor their plea of ignorance
of tho Porsinn Government’s orders prohibiting tho import into Porsia,
or thoir allegation that tho “ British Consul there, acting on behalf of
“ tho British Government, scizod ” tho arms referred to. Tho former
question of the prohibition will bo discussed presently, and hero it is
sufficient to dispose of tho latter allegation. The real fact is that tho
British Vice-Consul merely attonded tho soizuro by tho Persian officials,
iu response to tho request of tho Persian Government, in order to
witness the proceedings and to formally sanction tho entry of Persian
officers upon tho premises of a British firm. Tho arms seized by the
Persian authorities on Persian territory have been sent by them to
Tehran, and Messrs. Pracis Times must now either prove to tho Persian
Government their right to import them into Porsian territory, or else
satisfy Her Majesty’s Minister at Tehran that there are sufficient
grounds for his interference.
5. The next complaint refers to the seizure of the arms carried by
tho “ Baluchistan ” into Maskat waters, regarding which there is the
formal decision of tho Maskat Court, datod the loth of April 1898, that
tho arms wero intended for Persian ports, that after leaving the British
port the marks of destination were altered at “ Port Said ” on hoard
the ship iu order to mislead, that 1T.M.S. “Lapwing” acted in
accordance with the permission givon by His Highness the Sultan, and
that tho soizuro was legal and proper. At this stage it will bo convenient
to roview tho proceedings taken by tho Persian and Maskat Governments,
in order to examine the plea that Messrs. Pracis Times & Co. wore
ignorant of the Persian prohibition upon tho import of arms into Persia.
Some short accouut of the practices of tho trade cau then bo given.
C. It is not necessary to go further back than tho 14th of July 1880,
when Mr. Lyall, Secretary to the Government of India, wroto to tho
Government of Bombay"’ pointing
* A'cc Government of India Lcllor No. 227
(Secret), dated 2nd November 1880. out “ that, from information rc-
“ ccivcd, the Government of India
“ have now no doubt that a very largo proportion of these percussion
“caps” (entered in a rotum of ammunition shipped to Bushire iu
1880) “ wero sent through Persia to the Afghau frontier, and wore sold
“ to Afghan troops at Herat and elsewhere.” It was added that “ tho
“ control of the export of this ammunition to the Persian littoral has
“ therefore, become a matter of special political and military importance.”
As a step in the direction of stopping the trado, a Notification, No. 15G0,
dated 1st October 1880, was issued and published in tho Official Gazette
by the Government of India, which oxcludcd the following arms, «&c.,
namely, consignments to any port “on the sea-board of the Persian
Gulf,' from tho terms of a General Order exempting (under Section 27
of the Indian Arms Act, 1878), from the prohibitions contained in
Section (3 of tho Act, arms, ammunition, and military stores brought
into an Indian port which may bo declared under manifest to bo con­
signments, without transhipment, to another port. Tho general public
were thus informed, in the most emphatic way, of the interests of tho
Government of India in checking tho traffic in arms to Persian ports.
It lias now to be seen what action was taken in Persia itself. On tho