Page 90 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

1 392 Records of Bahrain
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In that communication we stated that as regards Bahrain and the Trucial
Chiefs of Oman, British rights in the Porsian Gulf relied not merely on the agree­
ments concluded and transmitted at that timo to the Ottoman Government but
on the custom, consent and long-established relations between the local Chiefs
and the Government of India.
71. Persia is not then the real danger except in so far as alio would expose the
weakness of our position. . .
The future danger to our policy lies in the growth of the Wahabi power and ita
extension to tho Arab littoral of the Persian Gulf.
72. In this reference I will again quoto from Six Percy Cox’s remarks at the
Central Asian Society on 27th October last, which 1^quoted in a previous despatch'
He said with rogard to Bin Saud :—
“ I have discussed his ambitions with him many times. It may be of in­
terest if I tell you briefly what they are. Practically lie thinks that
he is justified in principle in regaining any territory that his fore­
fathers had a century ago, whether ns territory, or as a sphere of
influence. Oman was in their sphere of influence...............
" In my time before the war we had intimate relations with IbnSaud : we
had a treaty with him under which we paid him a subsidy, and it was
part of the agreement that he should not attack or molest any friends
of ours or any Chiefs who were in treaty relations with us.... but he
quite realised we could not go on paying this for ever. But what he
felt was this—Up to now I have been under specific obligation not
to annoy the British Government by any policy that I pursue.... but
now they have felt obliged to stop any payment to me, I think 1 am
entitled to pursue my own policy and work out my destiny as I think
best—He is now doing that. Up to now ho has bceu extraordinarily
correct and statesmanlike in oil that he has done. We have never
been able to put him in the wrong___I have little doubt that in the
course of time lie will seek to extend his authority over the interior
of Oman ”,
73. The subject on which Sir Percy Cox was speaking was Oman, but if Oman
was under Wahabi influence, Bahrain was under Wahabi control, and it would be
diflicult to say in which place our position was strongest or more important.
7*1. Here we have from the fountain head a statement of Bin Saud’s projects
on the shores of Arabia. Let us see how his action bears out Sir Percy Cox’s state­
ments.
In 191G as Sir Percy Cox states, wo had a Treaty with Bin Saud.
In 1927 we attempted to include a section in tho Treaty with tho following
wording:—
" His Majesty the King of the Ilcdjaz and Sultan of Ncjd and its Dependen­
cies undertakes as his fathers did before him to refrain from all aggres­
sion or interference with the territories of Kuwait, Bahrain and of the
Shaikhs of Katar and the Oman coast, who arc under the protection
of the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and who have treaty
relations with tho suid Government ”,
With the exception that no reference made to the question of determining the
limits of the territories mentioned, this article repeats the provisions of Article (>
of the Treaty, which wo hud already made with him in 1910.
7o. Yet Bin Saud now found it inconsistent with his dignity ns an independent
ruler to acci pi the phrase " to refrain from all aggression or interference ” more
particularly because the word interference seemed to him capable of too wide an
interpretation (vide Mr. Consul Jordon's despatch 10.-177/119/91, dated 2Gth January
1927).
Ho has now asked us for tho terms of our treaties, which he knows lenvo tho
rulers in question independent, though they may not hold communication witn
Foreign Powers.