Page 115 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Relations with Qatar, 1881-1891 441

/*/ HoV//{ op 1887.

GOVERNMENT OE INDIA. .

FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

EXTERNAL.

To
Thu Riout Hon’blb VISCOUNT CROSS, G.C.E.,
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

itr
Jf April 1887.
Simla, the
Ml Loud,

In continuation of His Excellency the Viceroy’s Despatch No. G-C.
From iho Political HfilJcnt In tho Ptralan Gulf, Not. ' (External), dated (lie 4th December
173, 170 and 30, dnl«d rcapccllvoly llio \ 23rd Dcroinlicr 1880, wo have the honor to forward
i860, Slit Uecaubor 1680, aud Id tVliru *ry jb«7, wiiu tho reports noted marginally, which
ndoauraa.
relate to acts of piracy committed near
tho El Katr and El Katif coasts of tho Persian Gulf.
2. Your Lordship will observe that tho Political Resident has urged tho
potty Cbiofs of El Katr and Jasim bin Muhammad bin Thani of El Dida’a.to
co-operato in suppressing such outrages, and that the terms of their replies aro
gonorally reassuring. Tho El Katr coast was recently visited by 11. M. S.
Sphinx, and Colonel .Ross hopes for good results from constant observation of
this hind and by means of tho new Residency despatch vessel.
3. As regards tho El ICalif coast tho accounts received are less satisfactory.
It appears that in November last ccrtaiu sailors belonging to Bahrain boats
woro woundod and plundered in tho waters of tho port of El Katif. The
Resident enquires whothcr he should protest to tho Turkish authorities agaiust
tbo lawlessness provailing about El Katif. llo docs not unticipato that tho
protest would bo effectual, but ho thinks that it should bo mado bccuuso tho
jurisdiction of Turkey over this port has
°' SU"’ recognised. In this connection
Colonel ltoss refers to orders* passed by
Her Majesty’s Government in 1883, when u somewhat similar c-aso which had
occurred near El Katif was allowed to drop on tho ground that it was not dcsir-
ablo to raiso tho question of Turkish sovereignty. The Resident points out that
El Katif is complotoly in Turkish possession, that its occupation has boon
ropeatedly recognised, and that such recognition does not necessarily affect
other parts of tbo Arabian coast. Tlicso
1 LolUr from tb« Secretary In ilia Political and Secrot
U‘P*rl«onl, No. 17, dotod Ilia 23rd January lSBC. statements appear to us correct; and
wo obsorvof that, after tbo decision of
1883 was giyon, the oonduot of the Turkish authorities at El Katif, iu rospoot
°* ^0 impresamout there of a British vessel, formed tho subject of a romon-
alranco addressed to tho Porte by Her Majosty’s Embassy at Constantinople