"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٩‎٧‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١١٣٣)

978
Opinion of
Her Majesty's
Government.
Action by
British
vessels on the
Hasa coast
suspended
May 1879.
Negotiations
with Tnrkey.
that pirates should eontintie to he pursued by British vessels into Turkish
waters, and even upon the Turkish coast within the range of naval fire,
but that otherwise operations upon the mainland should devolve upon the
Turkish authorities ; that pirates captured by British ships under these
conditions should be dealt with by the British Resident in the Persian
Gulf j and that the Turkish administration should be held responsible
for obtaining redress in the case of all piracies committed from Turkish
jurisdiction.
The India Office were at first disposed to concur in the recommenda
tions of the Government of India ; but the Foreign Office considered that
the acceptance of the scheme by the Porte, involving, as it did, the aban
donment of considerable territorial pretensions on the part of Turkey and
the admission of foreign interference in waters admittedly Turkish, was
not to be expected. The establishment of a declared protectorate over
the Arab principalities concerned was likely, in Lord Salisbury's opinion,
to cjive rise to inconveniences even more serious than those which it was
sought to avoid. The Foreign Office inclined to the view that British
naval interference in Turkish waters should only be exercised in special
circumstances, when the consent of the local Turkish authorities had
been obtained.
Meanwhile the question of the employment of British ships of war
against pirates in Turkish waters or on the Turkish coast, authorised by
the Government of India in March 1879, had been referred by the Naval
Commander-in-Chief in India to the Admiralty, and by the Admiralty to
the Foreign Office. In May 187 9 a suspension of the operations in
question was directed ; and later, as the Law Officers of the Crown held
them to bt internationally unjustifiable even in the peculiar circumstances
of the Hasa^oast, they were prohibited.
As time w«nt on, however, and insecurity in the Gulf showed no
signs of abating, !t became necessary to insist on attention being paid to
representations, from time to time addressed by the British Government
to the Porte, which had hitherto been met bv evasion and delay. Sir H,
Layard, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, was accordingly
instructed to suggest, an arrangement by which the Turkish Government
should permit action, when indispensable for the suppression of piracy,
oy British vessels within the tVee-mile limit to the north of 'Odaid; and
it was intended that certain stipulations for Turkish co -operation when
a\ailable, for the transfer of prizes to^he Turkish authorities, and generally
foi the maintenance of the dignity of Turkey in her own waters should
foirn pait of the understanding. Negotiations on this basis continued at