Page 236 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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174 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
In accordance with this line of policy, Sir Henry Rawlinson, in an
interview with the Shah, informed the latter that
; under no circumstances can the British Government be expected to concur
•: in the proposed transfer of the sovereignty of Bahrain to the Persian Crown
since we have contracted engagements with the Arab Shaikhs of the Island
as independent chiefs, and since the maintenance of their independence is
indispensable to the successful working of those plans of maritime police in
the Persian Gulf which we have been at so much pains and expense to
establish.1
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The British Government was not satisfied with the behaviour of the
Shaikh of Bahrain, Shaikh Muhammad, who by soliciting military
aid from Persia and Turkey and by his aggression against Qatar,
contrary to his Agreement of 1861, provoked the British authorities
: in the Gulf to take a military action against Bahrain.2 This military
operation against Bahrain, which was carried out by the British Resi­
dent in the Gulf, Lt-Col Pelly, elicited a furious protest on 19 Novem­
ber 1868 by the representative of the Persian Foreign Ministry at Fars.
He condemned the British action against the ruler of Bahrain as an
‘absolute and independent proceeding which violated the manifest
and proved rights of the Persian Government in regard to the owner­
ship of Bahrein’.3 The Persian protest was ignored by the British
authorities, but correspondence about the Persian complaints con­
tinued between the Persian and British Governments without
results.
The Anglo-Persian controversy over Bahrain reached a new phase
when it became the subject of prolonged negotiations in London. The
starting point for those negotiations was a Note of Protest delivered
by the Persian Charge d’Affaires on 13 April 1869 to the British Foreign
Secretary, Lord Clarendon. The Persian Charge d’AfTaires reiterated
his Government’s vigorous complaints of Col Pelly’s actions in
Bahrain and as a proof of Persia’s sovereignty over Bahrain he fur­
nished the British Foreign Secretary with the texts of two letters from
Shaikh Muhammad, the deposed ruler, acknowledging his loyalty
to the Persian Crown.4
On receiving the Persian protest Lord Clarendon approached the
Duke of Argyll, Secretary of State of India, asking his views on the
subject of the political status of Bahrain and her relations with the
1 F.O. 60/249. Sir Henry Rawlinson to Captain Felix Jones, 4 May 1860, Sir
Henry Rawlinson to Lord Russell, 10 May 1860.
2 F.O. 248/247. Lt-Col Lewis Pelly to Charles Alison, British Minister at
Tehran, 28 December 1868.
3 F.O. 248/247. Translated purport of a letter, dated 19 November 1868, lrom
Mirza Mohammed Ali Khan, Persian Agent for Foreign Affairs, Shiraz, to Lt-Col
Lewis Pelly. Also see ibid., for resolution of the Secretary to the Government ot
dated 28 October 1868, approving Pelly’s action against the Shaikh ot
India,
Bahrain. 4 See above, p. 172.