'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. PART I - The Persian Gulf.' [‎39v] (83/92)

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At the end of 1903 the Sheikh complained that the Persian Government
were infringing the rights which had been guaranteed to him by the agreement
of the previous year ; but the infractions were probably trivial or were soon
discontinued, for after obtaining the British Ministers advice the Sheikh did
not revert to the subject. In September 1904 Sheikh Kbazal took alarm at
the proceedings of the Persian vessels “ Muzaffari and “ Persepolis, which
without his consent had visited his territorial waters and made seizures of arms
and ammunition carried by native boats : this he regarded as an encroachment
by the customs authorities upon his executive powers. Representations were
made in his favour by the British Bmbassy at .Tehran, but the Persian Govern*
ment declined to view the case in the light desired or to undertake that the
procedure complained of would not be repeated. In all hut customs matters,
however, the Sheikh’s authority was still virtually unimpaired at the close of
Lord Curzon’s Viceroyalty.
The remainder of the history of Arabistan from 1899 to 1905 either relates
to internal disorders in the north of the province and to tribal episodes there
and elsewhere, or is concerned with official changes and commercial enterprises
of which the most important have been mentioned already in connection with
British policy.
Despite the great extent of the Persian coast between Arabistan and
Persian Mekran, it has furnished few
Coast of Fars, Gulf Ports and islands, incidents of political importance during
the last seven years except such as have, for the most part, already been dis
posed of in connection with British naval, sanitary or general policy. In
March 1899 the Arab Sheikh or Zabit of Lingah, who in 1898 had vindicated his
hereditary claims to the place by seizing it and putting an end to the direct Per
sian administration wffiich had existed there since 1887, was expelled by the
Persian Government. The operation was carried out, partly by force and
partly by fraud, by the Darya Begi, Governor of the Gulf Ports, in violation
of a pledge which he had given to the commander of H. M. S. “ Pigeon, ” de
tailed to watch his movements, that violence would not be resorted to without
previous warning to the British naval authorities ; there was however little
loss of life even among the combatants and not very much damage was done to
the property of British subjects and other neutrals. Eor some time afterwards
the Persians were haunted by the fear of an Arab attack on Lingah from the
opposite side of the Gulf, and to neutralise this danger the Darya Begi, as we
have already seen, engaged in 1900 in a futile and short-lived intrigue with the
Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. In 1902 one of the adherents of the expelled Sheikh,
coming by sea from El Katr, made a small but partially successful raid in
Lingah territory.
The disturbed condition of the Tangistan district, apparently chronic but
more acute at some times than at others, has always been a matter of interest
to the British Government inasmuch as it endangers the security of the Bushire
peninsula and town, and during the period under consideration it twice came
prominently to notice. The first occasion was in 1990 w 7 hen on a night in
August a Tangistani gang tired a number of shots into the garden of the
British 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. at Sabzabad, several of which struck the buildings and one
of which killed a horse belonging to the Resident’s escort. The Persian Gov
ernment, on a demand for satisfaction being addressed to them, despatched a
military expedition into Tangistan under the Darya Begi; a good deal of des
truction was done to the property of the inhabitants, hut the Persian force was
not successful in capturing either the rival chiefs to whose misdeeds and
rivalries the unsettled state of the district was due. At the request of the
British Legation the Nizam-ut-Tujjar, a man of influential connections wffio
was suspected of having instigated the demonstration at Sabzabad in order to
discredit the Darya Begi, was at this time removed from Bushire. In 1903
trouble was renewed in Tangistan, and one of the contending chiqfs was invited
to Bushire and there treacherously arrested by the Persian authorities; some
life was lost in a struggle in the town which took place in consequence of his
arrest.