مجموعة ٣٠/٩٠ "المطالبة الفارسية بجزيرة البحرين" [ظ‎‎٤‎٢‎٨] (١٠٦٢/٨٦٩)

2
i? e . 5 r ‘s ■‘es
of Persia. „ . , r. i -i? . rr . n w ii] inform your Government that
2. In reply, I shall be grateful i > - grounds upon which the
His Majesty’s Government are n°t aware^ I 5 ^ ^ islands i s or can be
claim of the Persian Government to so\c o-. of p ers i aj n0 r are the
based. Geographically, the elands are ^ ment are aware that during
inhabitants of Persian race. ’ r „ dur i na the latter part of the
part of the 17th century and or .^Xpkd bv Persrnn troops, or by the
18th century Bahrein was “f.^Xres of the Persian Gulf; but it
followers of certain chiefs from t j ^33 government of the
appears to be established that m or about yv asioI1 of Arab tribes under the
Shah were dispossessed of the islands t s heikh, and that since that
leadership of the direct hneai ances o P^ er ^ e g ec tive control of Persia.
date the islands have never at am ^ various occasions alleged that their
3. The Persian Government have on Majesty’s Govern-
a. -">
declare this statement to be entirely inadmissibi . Government and the
4 The special treaty relations between His Majesty s '- ' r v r el1 f T ,, ,
* • nf Bahrein to which reference is made m the treaty ot Jeoaan,
successive Sheikhs ot BaUrem, to _ prltlirv t } ie fi rs t in the series of under-
have now been in existence for more than a century tpenrsw d . q the vear
takings by which those been C o nc i uded on tlfe basis that the
1820. The agreements have throughout been co Government do not
Sheikh of Bahrein is an independent ruler. Hs t „ ^ hich has from time to
deny that the claim to mdepenuence 0 , ' , 1 : T; narticular in the
time been contested by the Government of the In your note,
discussions which took place m 1 G t Pnvprm-nent are under a complete
I desire, however, p. ^ip^’from^tonns of the communication made by the
Gr?fffoTctr!ndo? o Se S Persian Minister on the 29th April, 1869 that any
late Karl ol L „ ,P ; A, tbp Persian claims to sovereignty m Bahrein was
3“ time 1 ; itended In that note it was stated that Her Majesty’s Government
had g veTdue con^deration to the protest of the Persian Government ‘ gainst
fw I'rLn risrht of sovereignty over Bahrein being ignored by the Britisn
authorities ” but it in no wav admitted any such right. On the conti ary, m
whole tenor of the note should'have made it clear that Her Majesty’s Government
mMutainfd their ri^ht to enter into direct treaty relations with the Sheikhs of
Bahrein as independent rulers; and while at the same time it indicated that Her
Maiesty’s Government would gladly transfer to Persia, if she were able and
wit fno- to perform them, certain duties in the Persian Gulf towards the
performance*of which the treaty relations in question contributed, and offered,
v ; ew 0 f the friendly feelings entertained by Her Majesty s Government towards
Persia! to cause the Persian Government to be informed beforehand, when
practicable, of any measure of coercion which the conduct oi the sheikhs
have rendered necessary, it is evident that no recognition ot Jie validity of the
Persian protest or of the Persian claim to suzerainty, was thereby intended or
implied * The note, in fact, as the Persian Legation at Constantinople was
reminded in December 1871 by Sir Henry Elliott, then Her Majesty s Ambassador
in Turkey contains nothing more than an acknowledgment that the Persian claim
to suzerainty had previously been made. The numerous supplementary agree
ments entered into between the British Government and the rulers of Bahrein
between 1869 and the present day have equally proceeded on the assumption that
a claim to sovereignty in Bahrein on the part either V?, 1 * 1 ®
Shah' or of the Turkish Government could not possibly be admitted by His
Maiestv’s Government. . . . ,- n
1 r. ‘ The attitude of His Majesty’s Government towards this question was still
more clearly defined when in the year 1906 His Majesty's Minister at Tehran, on
mv predecessor’s instructions, addressed to the Persian Government a note stating
tb* t “ His Maiesty’s Government have never admitted the ownership or
sovereignty of Persia over Bahrein, and such a claim is in their view, entirely
inadmissible. His Majesty’s Government consider the Island of Bahrein and its