مجموعة ٣٤/٧ "الرِق: تجارة الرقيق وتهريب الأسلحة: حق السُفُن البريطانية في البحر الأحمر والخليج الفارسي في القيام بالتفتيش" [و‎‎٢‎١‎٧] (٥٧٦/٤٣٣)

The three points vhich this correspondence raises are -
(a) the position in regard to the statement in paragraph 5
of the India Office memorandum on the arms traffic in the
Persian Gulf that the 1919 Arms Traffic Convention was
abandoned consequent on the refusal to ratify it ot the United
States of America. Are we in a position still to apply tnat
Convention in the Gulf in accordance with the agreement to
that effect reached in : 1920 between the principal signatories?
(b) the present position as regards the Persian finnan of
15th December, 1897, empowering H*M. Ships x> search Persian
vessels for anus on behalf of the Shah;
(c) the treatment to. be accorded oy h.M. snips to bejd
dhows suspected of traffic in anns. <
1. The India Office memorandum is flagged below.
3 . as regards the first of the points referred to above,
the position is, as stated in the memorandum, that the 1919
Convention has been abandoned consequent on the failure of the
fhited States to accede to it,, and a new convention on ratner
similar lines has been drawn up by the League. This convention,
vhich, so far as the Persian Gulf is concerned, contains
similar provisions to the Convention of 1919 about prohibited
areas, has itself, however, as stated in paragraph 7 of the
memorandum, not yet been ratified by the principal anus
producing countries, and has not been signed by Persia, as
regards both Conventions it may be remarked that Persia has
consistently refused to recogiise the classification of Persia
or of Persian waters as a prohibited zone. The Convention of
1919 was drawn up at a time when it was considered unnecessary
to take serious account of her, but in 1923, and again in 1924,
she protested formally to the League against the .classification
in question. V&ien the question arose of substituting a revised
convention for that of 1919, the Persians secured the omission of
Persia proper from the prohibited zones; concurred only with the
greatest difficulty in the inclusion of the Persian Gulf and the
Sea of Oman in the "special" maritime zone, and refused to agrer
to