'Historical Summary of Events in Territories of the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Arabia affecting the British Position in the Persian Gulf, 1907-1928' [‎51v] (109/188)

100
lo. On the 28th April 1888 the Resident communicated to the Minister
at leheran a copy of the translation of a report drawn , up locally for the
Amin-es-Sultan, which he had obtained privately, relative to the Persian
claims It appears that " there was nothing fresh in this report bevond a
new claim put forward to the island of Abu Alusa," which, again to quote the
Resident, u has no justification whatever." In the summer of the same year
(26th July) the Minister telegraphed to Bushire that a reply had now been
received from the Persian Government that " as the Jowasimi Sheikhs were
Persian Governors of Lingah, they considered no further proof of the justice
of their claim necessary." To this the Resident replied that the Persian
reply begged the question, and that the Arab contention as regards Sirri was
that the Jowasimi Sheikhs of Lingah represented the family, and derived no
right from their position towards the Persian Government.
16. In order to facilitate the disposal of other negotiations, His Majesty's
Government decided in August 1888 tacitly to acquiesce in the Persian
occupation of Sirri. _ Save, however, by such acquiescence, to which
reference was made in official correspondence with Persia in 1904 (see
para. 21 below), they have never in any way admitted or withdrawn their
original objections to the claim of the Shah's Government to the ownership
of the island while the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. stated in 1904 that it was equally
clear from the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. records that the Jowasimi Arab Sheikhs of the
Pirate Coast had never voluntarily dropped their claim, which they had
formally reiterated in 1895, to proprietary rights over Sirri, anv more than
over Abu Musa and Tamb.
IV -—Temporary Persian Occupation of Abu Musa and Tamb, 1904.
17. In January 190o the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. reported
that trade having to a large extent been diverted from Lingah as the result
of the short-sighted policy of the Belgian Customs officials, Lingah merchants
were endeavouring to arrange with the Bombay and Persian Navigation
Company to make the island of Abu Musa a port of call. He added that
in view of the Sirri incident of 1887, he was apprehensive lest the result
imght be the advancing of a territorial claim to this island by Persia. The
Resident stated that the island undoubtedly belonged to the Jowasimi Sheikh
o bhargah, that the Jowasimis did not, however, fly a flag on the island, and
that it might be well to advise the Sheikh of Shargah to do so as a sign of
ownership. J his course was approved and action taken accordingly.
18 The question having arisen of advising the Sheikh of Ras -al-Khaima
(a sneikhdom at that time and now dependent from the Sheikh of Shargah)
to adopt a similar course in regard to the island of Tamb, which belonged
to the Kas-al-Khanna section of the Jowasimis, the Resident reported that so
bv TW? TwT^-irTQl ^ tha V. sland had "ever been asserted
t> i ^ • sll 1 e l kh of Shargah m his existing capacity as Ruler of
Ras-al-Khmma claimed it as an appanage of the Jowasimis of the Arab coast
and that he was m possession of documentary evidence in the shape of
letters from two former Arab Chiefs of Lingah admitting the claim of the
Jowasimis of the Arab coast to those islands, as against the claim of the
Jowasimis of Lmgah It was decided that the Chief should be advised to
101st his flag on Iamb as on Abu Musa, and this was done.
19 In April 1904 the Viceroy telegraphed that the Belgian Customs
officials had placed guards on Abu Musa and Tamb, forcibly removed the
Ms g Thr^ T/^ 8 f nd the P — ^g on both
islands. Tins action led to immediate protest by the Sheikh of Sharpah
w JO appealed to His Majesty's Government, under his treaty relations with
them, to take the necessary steps to prevent such interference in his territory.
20. Ihe Government of India, who took a serions view of the incident
• p. 737 /0.. P?; 0 P 0 * ed ; to despatch a gnnboat to the islands, with a representative of the
bheikh of Shargah on board, to haul down the Persian flag, reinstate the
1%!^, I.O. hoZe^'tofi^th" p 0Ve the p gUardS t0 Pel i &ian territ0r y- d-WeS
to P.O., May t 1904, howevet , to give the Persian Government the opportunity to withdraw from
p 2553 /04 the position they had taken up, and on the 24th May the Minister reported