Page 410 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

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CHAPTER X.
Protection from foreign enterprise the rights of Arab tribes in the
pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf.
304. If there is anything more than another that is attractive in the Persian
Gulf, it is its pearl fisheries. It is for this reason more than perhaps than any other
apart from its importance as a high way of commerce, that the Persian Gulf
has been one of the most coveted regions of the earth. As guardians of the
Maritime peace of the Gulf for more than a century and protectors of the Arab
tribes on the Pirate Coast and of the Chief of Bahrein, there have devolved
upon us obligations to protect their rights in the pearl fisheries, such as they
are usage against foreign encroachments.*
305. The first agreement for truce signed in 1835 by the Pirate Chiefs was
Section xliii of the Persian Gulf Pitch (1801* for the period of the pearl fishing season.
They agreed that from 21st May 1835
to 21 st November 1835 there should be a complete cessation of hostilities at
sea between their subjects and dependents and an inviolable truce should be
established during which the Chiefs' claims upon one another should rest in
abeyance. The advantages of this truce were found to be so great, that it was
renewed every year. The periodical truce was soon converted into an annual
one and ultimately in 1853 into a Treaty of Perpetual Peace.
u
306. But the truces could not be enforced without the vigilance of the East
India Company’s navy and our officers in the Gulf. In fact the maritime peace
on the Arab Coast, was maintained at immense sacrifice by the British Govern­
ment, for which their only rewaid was the security of trade in the Gulf and
especially of the diving operations during the pearl fishing seasen, the benefit
of which has mainly accrued to the Arab divers and boatmen and the Indian
Baniahs who have been financing the industry. That the Arabs should continue
to enjoy their benefits is of the highest importance: we have forced them from
piratical enterprises into peaceful avocations among which the most important
is that of pearl fishing. They enjoy a practical monopoly of this industry; to
deprivethemof.it, would entail on them direct impoverishment and misery.
This accounts for the care with which we have been guarding their interests
from foreign encroachments.
307. The earliest instance in which we interfered was in 1857. In a letter
addressed to the Bombay Government,
Volume VI, 165 ot 1857, page 165.
dated 27th April 1857, Messrs. J. and YV.
Watson of Bombay requested to be informed if British subjects could by right
or sufferance, engage in pearl fishing in common with the subjects of the
maritime chiefs of the Persian Gulf.
308. The opinion of Commander Felix Jones, who was consulted on the
subject, was as follows (letter dated 16th June 1857) :—
’* With reference to the subject of your letter No. 2003, and its enclosure, I have
the honour to state, for the information of the Right Hon'ble His Lordship in Council,
that I do not conceive British subjects have any right to fish for pearls on the fishing
grounds of the maritime tribes in the Persian Gulf.
By sufferance they might indeed be permitted to do so. It would, however, I think,
necessitate stipulations and agreements between parties which, ori the Arab part, would
be broken at all times, unless indeed the British Government is prepared to maintain a
permanent force on the fishing grounds in the event of the project being carried out on
an extended scale. 1 am of opinion, too, that British' capitalists would not be able to
compete with the Banyas, and other native traders now monopolizing the fisheries in
their own hands, and it is certain that plunder, if not bloodshed, would result to inex­
perienced parties at the outset of operations in the sea. We have examples of the con-
tentions on coasts inhabited by civilized people in regard to fisheries, and I need hardly
point out that, if pursued amongst tribes always at feud with each other, great jealousies
must arise which may call for our armed interference at all times.

. / So.me„id5*Sfthe P*"1 will be got by reading the notes on the Pearl fisheries in the Persian Gulf
j on page 27 of the Gulf Administration Report for 1877-78, and Appendix B-, to Par* •
cl the Gulf Administrate Report tor 1878-79 (page 40), which gives a list of vessels engaged in trade and pearl
nineties, etc, 00 the coast of Oman.