Coll 30/90 'Persian claim to the island of Bahrain' [‎432v] (877/1062)

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, . . , „• Maiestv - S Government at that date, more than a century ago;
views held by His Maje. , oitpr their opinion. ,
they have never since seen any reason to - *29th April 1869, to which the
' 10. The Earl of Clarendon s note of the|9th AprU,^ replyj wag
Persian Government devote so lar S e ® „ t ti I10W placed upon it by the
certainly never intended to bear note of the 18th January, 1928,
Persian Government. As was pointed < had Advanced a claim to Bahrein, it
ft admitted that the Persian Government bad advanced ^ ^ ^ ^ admit
stated that due consideration had been given of the British
that their claim was valid. , l-cikhs to the treaty engagements which
Government to continue to hold the * el ^s to^the^ ^ Majegty . fe
had been entered into wun th. f _ P implicit acknowledgment of
Government are entirely unable to Terence in that note
the validity of the Persian claims n ^ ostah jishment and the maintenance of
to the considerations which dependence or otherwise of
those treaty relations; n01 ’ can * e L Effected by the fact that in entering upon
Bahrein on Persia can m any wa y, b ® att y^ kll A hev wpre principally moved by
and maintaining their treaties with ^ ^1 To maintain the police of
a desire to ™“^^e^^ themLlves were not in a position
the Gulf, duties which the I eisian c Maiestv’s Government
SK Slid tt, «"* tEii. am* mmmi k *** , %
special treaties by which they eveatually agresd to accept ic ton.io
dioiirVi’c fnrpip'n relations were concluded at a latei date.
sneikh s fntMscrmnex itmi n vi te the Persian Government to take note
fLafra^f of tlVs^nrsertfrol'your' s nfteu'fdf r'fepW that the
activities of the independent rulers of the trucial coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. of Oman, they found i
necessary to consider'the position in regard to Bahrein, - a riy f orty years h a d
elapsed since the conquest of this island by the ancestor of tne pie^ent Gi ■ ,
and during those years Persia had exercised no dominion m the islands a
appeared to have taken no measures to re-establish her position They had
accordingly no hesitation in entering into negotiations and concluding a treaty
with the” independent ruler without prior reference to the Government of the
Shah. Their obiect, as stated by Lord Clarendon in 1869 was the suppression
of piracy and the maintenance of peace in the Gulf; they strictly confined
themselves to the measures necessary to attain that object, and while it mig
have been open to them to establish their dominion over the sheikh, they did not
choose to do so, but contented themselves with an arrangement to secure t ie
safety of international shipping without imposing on themselves the ourden of
administration. They maintained this position not only m 1820 but on other
occasions in subsequent years, and notably in 1848, when they declined to accede
to the sheikh’s request that his dominions should be incorporated m those o±
Her Majesty the Queen. The treaty of 1820, by which the Sheikh of Bahrein
hound himself to abstain from plunder and piracy by land and sea, Horn the
slave traffic and from inter-tribal war was followed m 1847, m 1856, and Ibbl
by further treaties designed to secure the same objects^ the suppression or
slavery and the general pacification of the Gulf in the interests of international
shipping- The British Government concluded all these treaties with the sheikh
as an mdependent ruler, and consistently refused throughout to admit the
Turkish Persian and other claims to sovereignty over his dominions. It was
not until the treaty of 1861 that Her Majesty’s Government, in return for the
sheikh’s undertaking to abstain from maritime aggression, war and piracy,
assured him in return of their support against similar aggression, nor till a
still later period in 1880 and 1892, that they took upon themselves the unqualified
liability for the foreign relations of that ruler, under which he has now invoked
their assistance in repelling what he not unnaturally regards as a wholly
unprovoked attempt on his independence by a foreign Government,