File 4011/1923 Pt 2 'PERSIAN GULF: NEGOTIATIONS 1928 HENJAM' [‎924v] (1855/1934)

CHAPTER VL
Removal of Mr. Bruce and Appointment of Lieutenant MacLeod as Resident at
Bushire. Instructions to the New Resident as to the British Policv in tL
Gulf —November 1822.
1. After the recent unathonsed proceedings of Mr. Bruce, especially in cornier
tion with the treaty concluded by him with the Shiraz Government, Government
had, as we have seen, to remove him from the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and appointed in his nlarn
Lieutenant John McLeod, who had been employed in various capacities in the
recent expeditions on the Gulf.. The instructions issued to him by the Bombay
Govei nmentas to the ^ne of policy to be followed by him on their letter No 1584
dated 12th November 1822, is an important document and printed therefore at
length below :—
1 he Honourable the Governor in Council having been under the necessity of removing
Captain Bruce from the situation of Resident at Bushire, for the reasons stated in the
enclosed copy of correspondence with that officer, has been pleased to select you to succeed
Captain Bruce under the designation of Resident in the Gulf of Persia.
2. In furnishing you with the necessary instructions for the regulation of your conduct,
itffis necessary to premise that they embrace two objects ; one, immediate, arising out of the
eifect to be apprehended from Captain Bruce’s unauthorised proceedings, and the other of
a permanent nature connected with your office of Resident and the maintenance of the policy
which it has been determined to pursue with the view of keeping down piracy in the Persian
Gulf.
_ rj ' Jl8 powers whose reliance on our good faith are likely to be shaken and their alarms
excited, by the agreement entered into by Captain Bruce, are the Imam of Muskat and the
Ldtubi tribe of Arabs in general, and especially the Shaik of Bahrein, an island which it
/has been an object equally with Persia and the State of Muskat to reduce and annex to its
sovereignty, whilst a considerable degree of jealousy in establishing an ascendency over the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. has long subsisted between those two Powers.
4. The effect of Captain Bruce’s proceedings is calculated to impress the Imam of
Maskat and the Shaik of Bahrein with an apprehension that, instead of observing a 'perfect
neutrality in the Gulf, and limiting our interference to a control of all measures likely to
lead to a renewal of piracy found on Major General Sir William Kier’s treaties, we have
thrown our whole influence in the scale in favour of Persia in support of its general
views of supremacy over every island and possession in the Gulf of Persia.
5. The enclosed letters from the Honourable the Governor to the Imam of Maskat and
the Shaikh of Bahrein are intended to remove any doubts or apprehensions which the con
duct of Captain Bruce may have excited in that respect, it will be your duty to enforce on
the conviction of those Chiefs the assurances contained in those letters ; and of the deter
mination of the British Government strictly to adhere to the line of policy it has observed
in its relations tovrards the different powers in the Gulf, unaffected, in the slightest degree,
by Captain Bruce’s agreement which having been unauthorized and disavowed has of
course no existence.
G. You will also explain to them that our views are not at all changed ky withdrawing
our troops from Kishm which is to he restored to the Imam of Maskat as the power with
whose permission we occupied it.
7. The Governor in Council anticipates your experiencing a greater degree of difficulty
in removing the dissatisfaction of the Prince of Sepiraz in the disavowal of an agreement so
decidedly favourable to Persia than you will meet with in reconciling the Imam of Maskat
and the Shaikh of Bahrein to the integrity of our views.
8. Should you find His Royal Highness at all disappointed at our disavowal of Captam
Bruce ’s agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. on this occasion, you will express your regret that His Royal Highness did
not demand from that officer his authority for proposing an agreement so much at variance
with our policy before he directed his minister to enter into the negotiation.. You will refer
to ihe whole tenor of our communications to the Persian Government and of our conduct
since the occupation of Kishm and our negotiations with the Arab States for proof that the
permanent suppression of piracy, and the conservation of the peace of the Gulf hy the
friendly interposition of our power and influence, has keen alone the riding principle of that
policy. You will explain that it is our determination to persevere in that policy notwith
standing the removal of our troops from Kishm, which has been restored to the Imam o
Maskat under whose sanction we occupied it ; and that the pretensions to its sovereignty
remain precisely in the same state as at the period when that sanction was granted.
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