Page 86 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

388 Records of Bahrain

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The British Government blockaded Bahrain, captured and deported the
Shaikhs concerned in the attack and replaced Shaikh Ali by liia son Shaikh l‘)sa.
(The latter has reigned for 58 years and was in 1923 four years ago deposed by us
from the actual control, his son Shaikh Ilamad, the presont Shaikh, Doing made
Deputy Ruler in his place.)
41. In the same year, 18C9, the Persian Government were informed of the
action taken and the usual complaint followed.
The Government of India replied to the Secretary of State pointing out that
the Persian Government had no Navy and was incapable of assisting the British
Government in maintaining the peace at sea, while had they had a Navy, it would
only have meant that they would have been embroiled with the Sultan of Oman,
with the Arab Principalities, with!the Wahabi power and with Turkey, all of
whom were antagonistic to her ; indeed the assertion of claims by Persia had
already caused the revival of similar obsolete claims by Turkey and the other
Powers.
42. In a despatch of the 27th May 1870 the Government of India obsorved :—
“ If we arc no longer prepared to continue the performance of the tasks
we have undertaken we must withdraw altogether ; but the conse­
quences of such a step would be so disastrous, not only to our
national honour but to the peace of the Gulf, to the prosperity of the
tribes inhabiting the littoral and to the lives and prosperity of our
subjects who during the peace of the last 50 years have settled on
the shores and embarked enormous capital in the pearl fisheries
and the trade with the mainland, that we cannot contemplate this
course ns one of which II. M.’s Government could for a moment
contcmp'atc. ”
43. A protest was also entered by the Turkish -Minister in London against
the proceedings of the British authorities in Bahrain which were represented as
acts of British sovereignty over “ a portion of Turkish territory.” The Ottoman
Minister was informed that the British Government could not recognise the Turkish
claim to the sovereignty of Bahrain.
44. In 1892 the question came under consideration again, in consequence of
certain taxes, recoverable from Ottoman subjects only, having been levied at
Basrah upon Natives of Bahrain; and a demand for a refund was preferred by the
British Assistant Political Agent, who contended that Bahrain and its inhabitants
were under British protection. On this occasion the Turkish Government
addressed the British Embassy at Constantinople and denied the title of Natives of
Bahrain to British protection; but the reply, given under the instructions of II.
M.’s Government, was to the effect that, us Bahrain was now under the pro­
tection of Her Majesty the Queen of England, no interference by the Ottoman
authorities with the Natives of Bahrain could be admitted. A year latcrj in April
1893, the Turkish Government again protested against the assumption by the
British Assistant Political Agent at Basrah of a title to protect Natives of Bah­
rain ; and once more II. M.’s Government maintained the right of their
Diplomatic and Consular representatives in the Ottoman Empire to extend their
good offices to the class of persons in question.
45. In 1880 interest in the Persian Gulf was being shown by Foreign powers.
French, American and Japanese vessels had visited its waters.
In the circumstances, believing that Bahrain, as one of the chief commercial
centres, would soon become an object of this attention the Resident, finding the
Shaikh disposed to conclude a special arrangement with the British Government,
took the opportunity to obtain his signature to an agreement which was approved
by the British GovcrnniQnt in 1881.
40. It bound the Shaikh to abstain from entering into negotiation with ot
making treaties with other Governments, except with the sanction of the British
Government and lie agreed to refuse permission to any other Government, other
than the British, to establish Diplomatic or Consular Agencies or Coaling depots
in Bahrain territory, except with the consent of the British Government.
\