File 160/1903 'Persian Gulf: El Katr; appointment of Turkish Mudirs; question of Protectorate Treaty with El Katr' [‎107r] (218/860)

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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. , London,
9th September 1904r.
Secret,
No. 41.
To His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor
General of India in Council.
My Lord,
With reference to the letter from, the Government of India,
subject of the proposal to conclude a protectorate treaty with Sheikh
From ditto, dated 18th July 1904, and 2 . Your Excellency will observe
r. rwnrps. ^
further question should be raised with the Turkish Government at
the present moment, when there are already other matters of importance
under discussion between the Porte and His Majesty’s Government, and
that he does not consider that the conclusion of the proposed agreement
with Sheikh Ahmed is warranted by the delay of the Turkish Govern
ment in cancelling the Mudirate at Wakra. It appears, however, from
his Excellency’s Despatch of 28th June 1904, that he considers that
such an agreement might be justified to the Turkish Government on the
ground that its object is to give His Majesty’s Government the right to
restrain foreign interference in El Katr, without attempting in any
other way to disturb the status quo so far as the Turkish Government
is concerned.
3. The decision, therefore, depends upon the question whether the
objects to be attained by the proposed agreement are of sufficient
importance to counterbalance the suspicion and ill-will which it would
be calculated to arouse in the minds of the Turkish Government. The
El Katr coast at present constitutes a break in the continuity of our
maritime influence along the shores of this pait of the Gulf, lying as it
does between the island of Bahrein and the Pirate Coast. The absence
of any agreement with the Sheikh may prove, in certain contingencies,
a hindrance to the proper exercise by His Majesty’s ships of their duties
in the suppression of piracy and the maintenance of the peace of the
Gulf. It also presents a difficulty of considerable importance from the
point of view of the protection of the pearl fisheries from outside
interference, to which reference is made in your letter under reply.
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. : proposal to con
clude a protectorate treaty with the
Sheikh of PI Katr.
No. 77 (Secret, External) of the
31st March last, I forward here
with a copy of correspondence*
with the Foreign Office on the
* To Foreign Office, dated 18th May
1904.
Ahmed-bin-Thani of El Katr.
enclosures.
To ditto, dated 16th August 1904.
From ditto, dated 29th August 1904.
that IIis Majesty’s Ambassador at
Constantinople regrets that a
S. 36.
A