ملف رقم ١٦٠ لسنة ١٩٠٣ "الخليج الفارسي: قطر؛ تعيين مديرين أتراك؛ مسألة معاهدة الحماية مع قطر" [ظ‎‎٣‎٠] (٨٦٠/٦٥)

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In the second case two British firms, Messrs. Blockey Cree and Co. and Messrs.
Blanev and Solomon, were informed that they mnst transfer their factories to the
outskirts of the town, on the pretext of a regulation 46 years old concerning steam-
engines and boilers, whereas, as your Excellency has pointed out to me, the lactones m
question are run by smokeless oil-engines, which are in ^ no respect dangerous.^
There is clearly, therefore, no ground whatever for the application of the regulation
to these factories, and its enforcement would be wholly unreasonable and very
burdensome to the owners.
Your Excellency should insist upon satisfaction being accorded to all these British
subjects and afford to them the full and effectual protection of His Majesty s
Government, who cannot admit a continuance of the oppression to which they aie
being subjected. You should add that His Majesty’s Government cannot be expected
to acquiesce in the helplessness expressed by the Ottoman Minister for Foreign Affairs
with regard to the illegal proceedings of the Bagdad authorities, and that such
helplessness on the part of the central authorities amounts to an abdication of
Government.
I have already furnished your Excellency with full instructions on the subject
of the forcible and unjust intervention of the Ministry of Public Works in the
dispute which has arisen between the Smyrna— Aidin Railway Company and the
Societe des Qnais: it is matter for grave concern to His Majesty’s Government that,
apart from this particular incident, the Board of this Company should be compelled
to complain that “ for the past two years the attitude of the Ministry of Commerce
and Public Works has been increasingly overbearing and harassing,” and that they
should have claimed the active protection of His Majesty s Government not only on
account of the important material interests involved in the present case, but also m
view of the s 3 T stematic and continuous attempts which are now being made to
encroach on the Company’s rights and ? privileges as laid down in its Conventions
with the Imperial Ottoman Government.’
I pass now to the incidents of political aggression.
On the 30th May, 1909, I informed your Excellency that the lurks had some time
previously occupied the island of Zakhnuniyeh, which lies some 10 miles south-east o
TJjair; that they had hoisted the Turkish flag on a fort, and had arranged to keep a
guard there ; that the Sheikh of Bahrein had protested to His Majesty s Government
against this occupation, his father having built the fort, where he used to keep a
garrison, fifty years ago ; and that the island, which had no permanent inhabitants,
had been regularly visited for purposes of fishing, by natives of Bahrein.
I do not propose to enter upon a detailed review of British relations with
the Sheikh of Bahrein amd the Trucial Chiefs, since the matter is one which in no wise
concerns the Ottoman Government: I need simply observe that those relations have been
the foundation of the maritime peace which has now been maintained in the Persian
Gulf for well-nigh a century.
Moreover, as your Excellency is aware, m November and December lo71 the
Ottoman Minister for Foreign Affairs himself gave assurances that his Government had
no intention of attacking or obtaining any supremacy over Bahrein or the independent
tribes on the coast of the Persian Gulf, and similar assurances had already
repeatedly been given to Her Majesty’s Ambassador at Constantinople.
But apart altogether from the assurances of the Ottoman Government to which
•I have referred, Ujair, in the district of El Katif, is the most southerly point which
His Majesty’s Government have ever recognised as being under Turkish influence
on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
In these circumstances your Excellency was instructed to request the Ottoman
Government to withdraw the garrison from Zakhnuniyeh on the ground of terminating
a disturbance of the status quo ; and your representations were to be based not only
on the title of the Sheikh of Bahrein to the island, but also on the fact that it is
situated some distance to the south-east of ITjair, the furthest limit of Ottoman
jurisdiction.
Although the Ottoman Minister for Foreign Affairs informed your Excellency that
^ the garrison had been withdrawn in June 1909, it has since been reinstated in the
island, and, according to the latest reports, has quite recently been reinforced : and
the Ottoman authorities in regard to this question seem set upon disregarding your
Excellency’s repeated representations on the subject.
I have accordingly to instruct your Excellency to request that orders may be
issued for the immediate and permanent withdrawal of the garrison.
The next point upon which I desire to address your Excellency is the treatment
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