Page 252 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

190 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
safeguard the independence of Bahrain, and the Ruler of Bahrain has
received an assurance to this effect.1
Submission of the Shaikh of Bahrain to Persia
A further argument presented by Persia in support of her claim is the
alleged declaration of loyalty and the payment of tribute by the rulers
of Bahrain to the Government of the Shah. The Persian Note of
protest of 2 August 1928, makes a reference to this point by saying:
The Sheikhs of Bahrein have always accepted Persian sovereignty. Later
authentic documents exist in which they declare their entire submission
and loyalty to the central Government. . . and they paid taxes.2
The ‘authentic documents’ to which the Persian Government refers
in the above passage are two letters dated 9 and 12 April 1860, from
Shaikh Muhammad ibn Khalifah to Persia, in which he declared his
loyalty to the Shah. It seems doubtful whether such an isolated act of
loyalty in a certain period of Bahrain’s history can give credit to the
Persian claim to Bahrain’s sovereignty. To see what motivated Shaikh
Muhammad to send those letters of allegiance to Persia, it should be
recalled that during the period 1850-60, Shaikh Muhammad, in an
effort to retain his shaky position in the island, made overtures to the
British Government, to the Ottoman Empire and to the Wahhabis
respectively, requesting each of them to place Bahrain under their
suzerainty. He even paid tribute of 4000 dollars to the Wahhabi
ruler. When in 1859, Shaikh Muhammad became involved in hostile
activities with the Wahhabi ruler, there was no alternative for him,
especially after alienating the sympathy of the British Government by
his maritime activities, but to write to Persia asking for military
aid against the Wahhabis. It is in the prosecution of this policy that
Shaikh Muhammad sent the two letters of loyalty to the Shah in
I860.3 To suggest, therefore, that these two letters were a sincere
declaration, on the part of the Shaikh, of Persian sovereignty over
Bahrain is nothing but distortion of the facts.
Sir Austen Chamberlain in his reply of 18 February 1929 to this
point challenged the Persian argument by stating that the British
Government
have always been well aware that the unfortunate rulers of the islands,
surrounded by warlike and more powerful States which menaced their
1 House of Commons Debates, vol. 578, Written Answer, cols 115-16, 27 Novem­
ber 1957. In fact, Britain has continuously refuted similar claims.
2 L.N.GV., September 1928, p. 1361.
3 See above p. 172. It is observed from the diplomatic history of the island,
explained above, that the Shaikh’s letters of loyalty to the Persian Government
were sent after the Shaikh’s request to the British Government to extend protection
to his country was refused.