"ملف 12/2 معاملة البحرينيين في بلاد فارس" [و‎‎١‎٧‎٤] (٤٤٠/٣٤٧)

AIR MAIL.
No. P.Z. 6238/34.
My dear Metcalfe, p
I write with reference to your demi-official
F.101-N/34, of 18th September to Loch about the ill
treatment of Bahreinis in Persia. We were anxious in
the first place to ascertain Fowled views on the situation
generally and we now propose to postpone a reply to the
Foreign Office letter of 9th May until we have the conments
of the Government of India and any further observations
which Loch may make in reply to your letter of 18th
September. We should, however, be grateful if we might
have these in the near future.
2. Our own provisional view at this stage is that,
in the light of the legal position as described in Foreign
Office letter of 9th May, we can do nothing for Bahreinis 7
who enjoy Persian nationality under the Persian Nationality
Law. This probably covers the great bulk of the
Bahreinis in Persia. In the case of a Bahreini who is
not in fact covered by the provisions of the Nationality
Law and who is the victim of an incident, it will of course
remain open to us to make a protest, and it ma^ on general
political grounds be desirable that we should do sc, even
though in practice the chances of securing adequate reparation
from the Persians are probably relatively small. But on
this point, as well as on the question generally, we should
welcome the observations of the Government of India.
3. I make no cornnent at this stage on the suggestions
put forward in Prior’s very interesting note. Fowle
did mention while he was here that the Persian schools
in Bahrein, which he gave us to understand were centres
of disaffection, were not under the control of the Bahrein
Education Authority, and that the same is true of the
schools controlled by the American missionaries. There
seems a good deal to be said for remedying this state of
things
INDIA OFFICE,
LONDON, S. W. 1.
20th October 1934.
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