Page 73 - Records of Bahrain (3) (i)_Neat

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British interests and influence, 1898-1904

2[> WP. bJ

No. 43 of 1899. V.-CTS.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.
SECRET.
Extornal.

To
The Right Hon’ble LORD GEORGE F. HAMILTON,
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

Fort William, the 9th March 1899.

My Lord, to
Your Lords]lip's Secret despatch No. 20, dated tho 12th August i ' j
1898, asked for certain information in respect to our Agont at Baliroin and tho
trade in arms at that island. A briof notice of tho Agent -was incorporated in
tho Secret despatch from Lord Elgin’s Government, No. 191 (External), dated
tho 27th Octobor 1893, and this is supplemented by tho account contained £
in paragraph 8 of Lieutenant-Colonel
• Kncloiuro No. 1.
Mcado's “ Report* on tho attachment
of Arms at Bahrein in January 1898.” Tho Agont’s duties aro to keep
tho Political Resident informed of curront ovents in Baliroin, to convoy
communications between tho Rosidcncy and tho Sheikh, and gcnorally to look |
after British interests in Baliroin. Tho Agent exercises no powers.
2. In tho above roport Lieutenant-Colonel Mcado states that whatever
sharo Aga Muhammad Rahim took in tho transactions connoctcd with tho
arms trade was taken as a privato individual, and not as British Agent at
Bahrein. Tho Agont and his nophow liavo doolared that, on receiving tho
concession from tho Shoikh’s Vazicr, they woro awaro of tho conditions on
which it was givon, and that thoso conditions woro undorstood by Mr. Pracis:
ono of tho conditions was that arms woro not to bo sold at Baliroin or on tho
neighbouring Arab Coast. Lieutenant-Colonel Moado will mako further local
enquiry as to breaches of this stipulation. In Novombor last Aga Muhammad
Rahim stated to Lioutonant-Colonel Meade that ho had novel* seen or hoard of
tho lottor written to Messrs. Pracis, Times & Co. in July 1890, undor tho orders
of tho First Assistant, Captain Ducat, inviting from thorn an assurauctf that
tlioy did not proposo to import or deal in arms in Bahrein. It was not until
Octobor 1807 that tho matter camo to the notioo of Lioutonnut-Colonel Moado,
"who at onoo called on tho Agent for an explanation. It appears, howoYor,