File 4011/1923 Pt 2 'PERSIAN GULF: NEGOTIATIONS 1928 HENJAM' [191v] (387/1934)
The record is made up of 1 volume (962 folios). It was created in 6 Jul 1926-25 Jan 1934. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
claims would be less damaging than a settlement which his ci itics could represent
as weakness before British pressure. .
9. I seem to have read in recent despatches f rom various European capitals
that the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary concerned was experiencing
difficulty in adopting the policy which he admitted to be the right one, at any
rate until he knew how the electoral cat would jump, and so I do not judge
Teymourtache harshly. _ .
10. I am sending copies of this despatch, with its enclosures, to the Foreign
Secretary to the Government of India (No. 106), the Honourable the Political
Resident in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
(No. 90) and to His Majesty’s High Commissioner
at Bagdad for the information of Sir E. Howell.
I have, &c.
R. H. HOARE.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Interview with their Highnesses Feroughi and Teymourtache, May 22, 1932.
I SPENT from 10 a.m. till nearly 5 p.m. with Teymourtache and Feroughi.
My announcement of the decision to transfer the air route to the Arab coast
was received perfectly calmly. It was therefore unnecessary to do more than
touch on our reasons. Mhen I explained that if the Persian route weie opened
to other nations we should, if it suited us, claim most-favoured-nation rights,
and said that if experience showed—and only experience could show—that the
Arab route was not practicable we might reopen the question, Teymourtache
remarked that it was not, in fact, a definite decision. I replied that it certainly
was definite so far as the immediate present was concerned. With regard to the
four months’ extension proposed, I obtained no immediate reply.
Teymourtache then asked whether I had any instructions regarding the
treaty as a whole, and invited me to go through the articles.
I told him that His Majesty’s Government were satisfied with the redraft of
article 1. . ,
With regard to the note which he proposed to attach to article 3 (ships
visits), his proposal was admitted to be an advance, although not regarded as
completely satisfactory.
Our Basidu draft (article 5) was accepted.
Slavery (Article 10).—His Majesty’s Government noted a considerable
advance, but comments on certain points would be sent to me.
Claims (Article 12).—His Majesty’s Government shared his Highness s own
views on his rough draft (see relative paragraph of my despatch No. 101 of the
24th February), which, of course, did not cover the ground, and would send me
detailed proposals.
And so we came to Hen jam and Bahrein, with regard to which, taken in
conjunction and also individually, we had quite an endless but entirely good^
tempered discussion. It went on for a long time on familiar lineSj in the course oi
which Teymourtache suggested for the first time that the Persian Government
needed Hen jam for themselves; to this I replied that there was ample room at
Henjam for both of us and that it was obvious, viewing the matter with detach
ment, that the incipient Persian navy had everything to gain by having a good
example fairly frequently before their eyes, which he admitted to be perfectly
true. Teymourtache was insistent that, but for the necessity of eliminating the
irregularities which had grown up when Persia was not master in her own house,
he would not have dreamt of grudging us the hospitality of Persian ports m
general and facilities at Henjam in particular, and so we settled down to Bahrein.
Teymourtache was curiously insistent in pressing for Tamb, and I
equally insistent in refusing to consider Tamb and in declaring that it was out
of the question to press me to make any further tentative offer of £ £ compensation.
I said that he must be quite clear that His Majesty’s Government had never
admitted that Persia was entitled to any compensation at all in the true sense
of the term, because in their view the Persian title to Bahrein was definitely worse
than our title to Basidu and the Persian title to Sirri was just as bad as both the
other titles. All we admitted was that the Persian claim had a nuisance value,
a term which I had some difficulty in explaining in French. It was, I think, at
About this item
- Content
This volume relates to British policy regarding the Gulf island of Henjam [Jazīreh-ye Hengām], occupied in part, on and off, by the British since the late nineteenth century.
Interdepartmental correspondence refers to the establishment of a British telegraph station on the island in 1868, following a concession from the Persian Government, which was abandoned in 1881 but re-established in 1904. The correspondence also acknowledges that further developments since then, including the establishment of a wireless station and a naval coal depot, represent an encroachment by the British Government.
The main topic of discussion is the extent of the British claim (or lack thereof) to Henjam, and the continued use of the island as a fuelling and recreational station for British naval forces in the Gulf.
Related matters of discussion include the following:
- The possibility of consolidating the British position at Henjam by offering to surrender Basidu to Persia
- The British response to Persian forces expelling the Arab Shaikh of Henjam from the island in May 1928, in retaliation for the Shaikh attacking and looting the island's customs office the previous year
- The drafting of a protocol (as part of wider Anglo-Persian negotiations, which are referred to throughout) in 1929 between the British and Persian governments, setting out the terms for the British Government's surrender of its claims to Basidu and Henjam, in return for continued access to facilities at Henjam, possibly in the form of a lease
- The consideration of alternative locations for a naval station, in the event of it being necessary for the British to relinquish their hold on Henjam
- Whether the British should be prepared to offer the Persian Navy docking and refitting facilities at Bombay or Karachi, on 'favourable terms', in return for their continued use of the facilities at Henjam
- A request from the Persian Government in September 1932 for the immediate withdrawal of the British naval establishment, following the Persian Government's decision to use Henjam as the location for six recently purchased naval vessels
- The possibility of the British naval depot at Henjam being relocated either to Basidu or Bahrein [Bahrain].
The volume features the following principal correspondents: the British Minister in Tehran, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and officials of the Admiralty, the Foreign Office, and the 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. . Other notable correspondents include the following: the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the Viceroy of India; the Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India; the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs; officials of the British Legation at Tehran and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department.
Also included in the volume are the following: a précis of printed correspondence relating to British positions at Basidu and Henjam, covering the period 1821-1905 (ff 898-941); an 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. memorandum entitled 'Henjam. Position and Rights of His Majesty's Government in the Island of Henjam', dated 26 September 1928 (ff 723-726); copies of the minutes of two meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence's Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East, dated 17 December 1931 (ff 249-262) and 10 October 1933 (ff 12-28); a copy of a memorandum by the Admiralty and the Foreign Office on the British naval depot at Henjam, dated 23 February 1932 (ff 197-208).
The French language material consists of correspondence from Belgian customs officials writing on behalf of the Persian Government, as well as articles from the aforementioned draft protocol, and correspondence between the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs and the British Minister at Tehran. English translations are included in some but not all cases.
The volume includes two dividers which give the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. These are placed at the back of the correspondence (ff 4-5).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (962 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
The subject 4011 ( Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Negotiations) consists of two volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/1094-1095. The volumes are divided into two parts, with each part comprising one volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 964; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/1095
- Title
- File 4011/1923 Pt 2 'PERSIAN GULF: NEGOTIATIONS 1928 HENJAM'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:7v, 10r:46r, 47v, 49r:60r, 61r:68v, 71r:104v, 106r:117v, 119r:192v, 194r:241v, 243r:283v, 285r:288v, 290r:368v, 370r:401v, 405r:406v, 408r:422v, 425r:471v, 475r:487v, 489r:490v, 492r:516v, 521r:532v, 534r:565v, 572r:610v, 612r:612v, 615r:627r, 629r:654v, 660r:668v, 678r:692v, 694r:792v, 794r:802v, 805r:812r, 813r:854v, 855ar:855av, 855r:859v, 862r:870v, 873r:877v, 880r:911r, 912r:921r, 922r:922v, 924v:932r, 933v:939v, 940v:963v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
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- Open Government Licence