مجموعة ٣٠/٩٠ "المطالبة الفارسية بجزيرة البحرين" [و‎‎١‎٠‎٠] (١٠٦٢/٢٠٤)

IV.— 1820 30
Unauthorised Agreement between Captain Bruce and the Prince Governor
of Shiraz, 1822
■ Captain Bruce, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf
acting on his own initiative and without any authority from or prior reference
to Government, having proceeded of his own accord to Shiraz there signed an
agreement with the Minister of the Prince Governor of Shiraz on the part of
■’ersia. This agreement alleged, inter alia, in regard to Bahrein,’that the islands
had always been subordinate to the Governor of Pars, against whose authoritv
the Uttabi Sheikhs had lately become rebellious; that the flag assigned to the
Uttabis of Bahrein under the General Treaty of Peace with Britain in 1820
should accordingly, if already granted, be withdrawn, that no assistance should
in future be lendeied by Britain to the XIttabis of Bahrein and that on the con
trary the British Government should, if requested, assist ’the Persians against
Bahrein with “ one or two ” vessels of war. In other words, the title of Persia
to the possession of Bahrein was explicity admitted. The arguments which
car i led weight with Gaptain Biuce m concluding this unauthorised agreement
appear to have been that the reversion of Bahrein to Persian authority would tend
“ more to the tranquillity of the Arabian side of the Gulf than almost anv other
act.”
■2P The Resident s action was immediately disavowed and disapproved by
the Government of Bombay, in letters from the Governor to the Prince Regent
of Pars (which stated that it is not the intention of this Government to take
any part in the claims of the several Powers and States of the Persian Gulf
further fhan may be necessary to prevent a renewal of piracy. . . . There
can be nothing in the flag [granted to the Uttabis] to give offence to Persia, as
there is not the smallest connection between it and the British flag, nor the
smallest pretension to superiority on the part of the British Government ”), the
Imam of Muscat, and the Sheikh of Bahrein, and as a mark of disapprobation he
was removed from his appointment. With regard to the clause of the agreement
affecting Bahrein the Government of Bombay remarked : “It acknowledges the
King of Persia’s'title to Bahrein, of which there is not the least proof, and which
the British Government cannot assert without injuring the pretensions of the
Imam [of Muscat] and the Uttabis. . . .” On the Persian side, the Shah not
only refused to approve the arrangements which had been made, but expressed
his displeasure that the Prince of Shiraz should have entered into any engagement
with the British Government without his knowledge and injunctions. The
agreement was thus repudiated by both sides.
1822-29. Bahrein—Muscat Disputes
22. By 1822, if not earlier, the Sheikhs of Bahrein had ceased to observe the
engagement undertaken by them in 1820 to pay an annual tribute to Muscat. In
August 1822, an attack by Muscat on Bahrein seeming in consequence imminent,
the Governor of Bombay, in letters to the Sheikh and to the Imam of Muscat,
Suggested that if this tribute was of ancient origin it should be regularly paid,
but that otherwise it should be dropped. In January 1823 the Political Resident
(Lieut. McLeod) visited Bahrein to reassure the Sheikhs in regard to the
unratified treaty concluded by Captain Bruce with the Prince Governor of
Shiraz, and to inform them that that treaty was of no effect and that no change of
policy was contemplated by Government. In the spring of 1823, on rumours of a
contemplated joint attack on Bahrein by Persia, Muscat and the Arabs of the
mainland, the Minister at Tehran was asked at a suitable juncture to dissuade
the Persians from disturbing the tranquillity of the Gulf.
23. In February 1824: the Resident composed for a period of two years the
acute internal disputes between members of the ruling house which were for
many years a feature of the history of Bahrein. In 1825 the Governor of Bombay
personally remonstrated with the Imam of Muscat on an endeavour by the latter
to interfere in the question of the Bahrein succession consequent on the death
in that year of Sheikh Salman, who had ruled the Sheikhdom since 1796 (in
association in his later years with his brother Abdullah).
Reassertion of Persian Claim, 1825
24. In 1825 an intimation was made by the Political Resident to the Prince
Governor of Pars, who had been meditating an expedition to subdue Bahrein,
and whose Minister had requested the Resident to give directions to the Sheikh
Capt. Rruce
to Govt, of
Bombay,
3.9.1822.
Govt, of
Bombay to
Capt. Bruce,
No. 1491 of
1.11.1822,
para. 6.
Teh. Desp.
No. 1,
25.1.1823.
Lor. I, 851.
Govr. to
Imam,
19.8.1822.
Govr. to
Sheikh,
19.8.1822. ^
Precis, 307.
Lor. I, 850.
Resdt. to
Govt, of
Bombay,
No. 8,
27.2.1823.
Lor. I, 852.
Govt, of
Bombav to
Teh., No. 394,
26.3.1823.
Lor. I, 851.
Lor. I, iii, X,
Table 9.