"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٩‎٠‎١] (١٧٨٢/١٠٥٦)

901
against their officers; and, in view of the attitude of Her Majesty's
Government towards the question of Persia and Bahrain, they dwelt at
length on the evils that were likely to arise from a renunciation by the
British Government of their beneficent supervision of the peace of the
Persian Gulf, as also on the inconveniences of any policy by which it
might be attempted to associate the Persian Government with the British
in that task. They pointed out that Persia, having no navy whatever,
was incapable of assisting Great Britain to maintain the peace at sea
and even more so of taking Great Britain's place, should that place be
relinquished ; had the case been otherwise, even, and had Persia
possessed some power at sea, her intervention would merely have
embroiled her with the Sultanate of 'Oman, with the Arab principalities,
with the Wahhabi power and with Turkey, to all of which she was
antagonistic ; indeed the assertion by Persia of claims to Bahrain
had already caused the revival of similar obsolete pretensions on the part
of Turkey and other powers. By their treaty engagements with Arab
Shaikhs the British Government were themselves pledged to maintain
the peace and to obtain reparation for maritime aggressions ; and, in the
opinion of the Government of India, the British protectorate in the Gulf
should be regarded as a matter of obligation rather than of right. In the
later of their two despatches the Government of India observed: " If
e( we are no longer prepared to continue the performance of the tasks we
" have undertaken, we must withdraw altogether ; but the consequences of
" such a step would be so disastrous, not only to our national honour, but
" to the peace of the Gulf, to the prosperity of the tribes inhabiting the
" littoral, and to the lives and property of our subjects, who, during the
" peace of the last fifty years, have settled on the shores and embarked
" enormous capital in the pearl fisheries and the trade with the mainland,
" that we cannot contemplate this course as one of which Her Majesty^s
" Government could for a moment entertain." This conclusion does not
appear to have been contested by the British Government.
Protest by tlie Porte against the action of the British Government
in Bahrain.
A protest was also entered by the Turkish Minister in London against
the recent proceedings of the British authorities in Bahrain, which were
represented as acts of British sovereignty over " a portion of Turkish