Page 136 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

I

74 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
1 or to the subjects of such Governments, without the prior consent of

* - i the United Kingdom.1
. • It is noteworthy, however, that the Kuwait Agreement of 1899,
does not contain a specific provision curtailing the power of the Ruler
to negotiate or to conclude treaties with foreign Slates.2 Moreover,
the Bahrain Agreement of 1880, does not restrict the power of the
]
P uler to conduct, without the mediation of the British Government,
i his own ‘customary relations with the local authorities of neighbour­
ing States'.3
: In return for the above obligations made by the Shaikhdoms, the
United Kingdom has undertaken (r/) to protect them against foreign
1 aggression, (h) to safeguard their continued individual independence,
(c) to look after their international political and economic interests,
: {(l) to extend her protection to their nationals abroad, and (<*) to con-
duct, on their own behalf, their external alTairs. Most of these duties
arc not based on treaty provisions. They have their basis in customary
state practice. The above treaties clearly prohibit the Rulers from per­
forming certain acts of sovereignty without the consent of the British
Government. Accordingly, these treaties have merely curtailed, but
not eliminated, the sovereignty of the Rulers.1
In practice, the British Government has, in dealing with the alTairs
of the Shaikhdoms, proceeded to act strictly on the basis of the
obligations contained in these treaties, and consequently, to object to
any representation made by foreign States with the Shaikhdoms with­
out its knowledge. During the last eighty-six years (since 1880, when
the first treaty of protection was signed with Bahrain), this British
practice appears to have been acquiesced in by those foreign States
which have raised no objections regarding British representation of
the Shaikhdoms. However, it may be pointed out that on at least two
occasions the right of British representation of the foreign affairs of
these Shaikhdoms has been openly violated by some foreign States:
fa) Extradition of criminals and debtors between Turkey and Bahrain,
18S0
In 1880 and after, the Turkish authorities in al-Hasa, on the mainland
of Arabia, made direct requests to the Ruler of Bahrain for extraditing
criminals and debtors ‘who had absconded to Bahrain’, and in one
instance one ‘Abdullah’, who was accused of murder, was actually
surrendered. Consequently, according to Lorimer, the Government
of India wrote to the British Political Resident in the Gulf instructing
him to ‘discourage’ the Shaikh ‘from entering into direct correspon­
dence with the Turks’. ‘Inthcvicw of the Government of India’,says
i See Part One. 2 See Chapter 5. 3 See Chapter 3.
4 There is nothing in these treaties to show that the Rulers have ceded their
sovereignty to the British Government.