'Memorandum on the separate claims of Turkey and Persia to sovereignty over the island of Bahrein.' [‎12r] (23/40)

19
General Mohsin Khan
January 22, 1870.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , January 29, 1870.
Admiralty, January 25, 1870.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , February 21, 1870.
To India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , January 25, 1870,
Admiralty, February 1, 1870.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , February I, 1870.
ence would continue to be paramount in the Persian
Gulf, and that Persia could never exercise the
authority which she ought to have in that sea
unless she possessed some kind of naval establish
ment of her own ; and he strongly urged upon the
Shah's Ministers the expediency of making imme
diate arrangements, either by direct purchase or by
application to one of the European Powers, with a
view to the formation of a Persian flotilla in the
Gulf as a means of making good the Shah's claim
to Sovereignty over Bahrein ; of resisting the pre
tensions of the Imaum of Muscat at Bunder Abbas
and elsewhere on the Persian coast; and of coercing
the Arab Chiefs on the shores of the Gulf.
The Persian Charge d'Affaires in London also
made a formal complaint against Colonel Pelly's
proceedings; and the opinion of Lord Clarendon
upon that officer's proceedings at Bahrein may be
gathered from the following minutes.
On the docket of one of the letters his Lordship
wrote, "I w T ish to know who authorized Colonel
Pelly's recent high-handed proceedings in the Per
sian Gulf; " on another he wrote, " The service
was no doubt well performed ; but, query our right
or duty to act as Colonel Pelly has done ; " and on
a third, " I trust that full explanations will be given
of the proceedings of Colonel Pelly, against which
Persian Government seem to have just reason for
complaint."
Full reports were applied for and received from
the Admiralty and Indian Government respecting
Colonel Pelly's proceedings, and from these it
appeared that the sole object the British authorities
had in view was the punishment of the Arab Chiefs
at Bahrein for breaking the maritime truce and
insulting the English flag, and the suppression of
piracy. But, instead of the Persian Agent having
been insulted, it appeared that he did not go himself
to Bahrein, but sent one of his people; and Colonel
Pelly thus explained how that official came to be
detained;—
•'On the 19th November, 1861), a native craft
armed with guns, &c., and flying Arab colours,
endeavoured to break the blockade. She w T as
visited and proved to have on board an emissary
from the Persian coast, asserting himself to be the
bearer of certain letters confirming the Pirate Chief