مجموعة ٣٠/٩٠ "المطالبة الفارسية بجزيرة البحرين" [و‎‎١‎٠‎٥] (١٠٦٢/٢١٤)

17
valid and in force the earlier conventions entered into between Bahrein and Her
Majesty’s Government, and undertook in return for a guarantee of protection
against aggressions ££ by the Chiefs and Tribes of the Gulf” to abstain from
maritime aggression, piracy, the slave trade, &c., and to agree to certain Aitchison,
conditions in regard to residence and trade in Bahrein by British subjects and to Na'x^k.
jurisdiction over them. One of the ships seized from him was thereupon
returned; the second, the Hamrah, was retained.
71. The Turkish and Persian agents would seem to have disappeared from P oL Res- to
Bahrein before the Resident’s arrival. The Persian authorities at Bushire in 8 . 61861 °' 20
June 1861 asked the Resident for an explanation of his proceedings. The
Resident, however, contented himself with forwarding their enquiry to Her
Majesty’s Minister at Tehran. The Convention was approved by the Government
of India in 1861, and the Turkish and Persian Governments were informed of
what had happened.
Summary, 1850-61
72. The Turkish Government were informed in 1851 that Her Majesty’s
Government could not recognise any claim on their part to Bahrein.
The Sheikhs appear to have continued to pay tribute to the Wahabi Amir
in the early part of and possibly throughout this period.
In 1859 the Sheikh appealed simultaneously to Turkey and to Persia, as the
result of apprehensions of a Wahabi attack, and received a Persian envoy, who
hoisted the Persian flag. On the arrival immediately afterwards of the Turkish
envoy the Persian flag was hauled down. Subsequently the Sheikh for a time flew
both flags side by side. The envoys seem to have left Bahrein in the early part of
1861. No action was taken by the British authorities pending a decision by Her
Majesty’s Government as to whether they regarded Bahrein as independent.
The Persian Government undertook not to endeavour to occupy the islands until
the title to them was settled.
Her Majesty’s Government decided in February 1861 to regard the Sheikh
as an independent ruler and so hold him responsible for piracies, &c. Punitive
action against him by Her Majesty’s Government having proved necessary in May
1861, he entered in that month into a convention with them in which he was
described as ££ independent ruler of Bahrein,” and secured certain guarantees
of protection.
YIII.—1861-67. From the Convention of 1861 to the Punitive Expedition of
August 1868
Persian Protest (1862)
73. In January 1862 the Persian Minister in Paris protested to Her ^ 0 or p ^ owley
Majesty’s Ambassador in Paris against the seizure of the Hamrah. He was No. is,’
informed in reply that Her Majesty’s Government could not recognise any claim
on the part of Persia to question their proceedings in regard to Bahrein, and must Lord Cowley,
therefore decline to offer him any explanation on the subject of his complaint. 22 ° 2 .i 862 .
Persian Protest (1866)
74. Between 1863 and 1865 the Sheikh continued to misbehave, and in the Lor. i, 891.
latter year his ship, the Dinar, was seized under the instructions of the Resident.
The Persian Government in 1866 made a complaint in regard to the Dinar
proceedings on the ground that Bahrein under the unratified agreement of 1822
was a dependency of Persia. The Government of India, after ascertaining from
the Government of Bombay the nature of the agreement of 1822, communicated Lor - b 691 -
the result of their enquiries to the Minister at Tehran, and added their own
opinion that ££ whatever might have been the pretensions of Persia or the grounds
of the same to the sovereignty of Bahrein in former days, the Shah could not now
be regarded as possessing in point of fact any rights in the principality.” This to G. of i.
communication was approved by Her Majesty’s Government in the same year, and 28.2.1867.
the matter appears to have dropped.
Nature of Relations between Bahrein and Wahabi Amir (1867)
75. In 1866-67 the Resident, on the instructions of the Government of India,
investigated the relations of the Sheikh of Bahrein and the Wahabi Amir. He
reported as a result that the Sheikh claimed to be independent so far as his islands
85—177
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