"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٧‎٤‎٥] (١٧٨٢/٨٨٨)

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at Tehran. By this case, which the Government of India regarded as
a test of the right of Great Britain to act on behalf of the Trucial
Shaikhs in external affairs, the British Legation in Persia were made
aware for the first time of the existenoe of the Exclusive Agreement of
1893 ; and the right in question, subsequently admitted, as we have
seen, by France, may be considered to have been definitively assumed
upon this occasion.
The next question to arise between Trucial 'Oman and Persia was one Attempted
of importance, for it involved, to some extent, the naval position a ™® xa . ti ) on :i
... 1 of the islands
of Great Britain in the Persian Gulf. The establishment of control over of Bu Musa
Lingeh by the Persian Imperial Customs had, in 1903, driven much of bvVers^a
the trade of that place away to the opposite side of the Gulf, especially to ^Ol.
Dibai; and thereafter, with a view to the creation on Bu Musa of a trade
emporium untrammelled by Persian official interference, some merchants
of Lingeh began to suggest that the island should be made a port of
call by the British steamship companies. Bu Musa had formerly been
ruled by the hereditary Arab governors of Lingeh in their capacity of
Qasimi Shaikhs, not of Persian officials, and, after the abolition of the
Arab governorship of Lingeh, the title of the Shaikh of Sharjah to
possession of the island was indubitable. Nevertheless it was feared that
actual and prospective loss of trade, if not further-reaching political
considerations, might tempt the Persian G overnment to some act of
annexation; and the attention of the Government of India was drawn
iu this connection not only to the island of Bu Musa, but also to
that of Tunb, of which the status was precisely similar. In the
result the Shaikh of Sharjah was advised to hoist his flag on
both islands, and in the summer of 1903 he did so. The
sequel proved the precaution to have been necessary. At the end of
March or the beginning of April 1904 the Persian Customs steamer
" Muzaffari," carrying M. Dambrain, the European Director of Persian
Customs at Bushehr, visited Tunb and Bu Musa; the Sharjah flags
were lowered; the Sharjah flagstaffs were dismantled; and two
Persians were placed on each of the islands as Customs guards. It sub
sequently appeared that these high-handed proceedings, though caiiied
out by a Customs officer, had been initiated by the Mushir-ud-Dauleh,
Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, most probably under Russian adA ice,
in the case of Bu Musa, the Minister, who evidently perceived the
international bearings of the enterprise, had shown marked hesitation in
giving the order to occupy. Serious representations were at once made
in the proper quarter by the British Minister at Tehran, and m the end