'Persian Gulf Gazetteer, Part I Historical and Political Materials, Précis of Bahrein [Bahrain] Affairs, 1854-1904' [‎28] (47/204)

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The despatch concluded as follows :—
" Apart from the positive engagements which we have contracted with the Arab
Chiefs, and from which it is neither possible nor desirable to recede, the present is not
a time when we can encourage the revival of old and unfounded claims such as those
which Persia now puts forward. During the years of peace that have followed the
establishment of our supremacy in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. trade has enormously increased,
ana the predatory Arabs have embarked in peaceful and mercantile pursuits on the
faith of the security which our protactorate affords. British steamers now ply weekly
from one end of the Gulf to the other and our subjects have embarked large capital in
the pearl fisheries on the coast s and in the commerce of Mesopotamia,Persia, and Arabia.
Every day the importance of the Gulf as a commercial highway between Europe and
East is increasing. Even if the political engagements which we have contracted
admitted of such a course, and Persia were possessed of an adequate naval force it would
be almost impossible and certainly impolitic to commit to her the guardianship of these
vast and varied interests. Any indication on our part even of a desire to do so would
probably be followed by the decline of trade, the outbreak of hostilities, piracy, and
plunder, and cfireturn to the disorder and lawlessness which during last half century
we have so successfully restrained."
(2) In a further despatch, dated the 20th May 1870 (No. 28, Secret),
Lord Mayo's Government pointed out that the action of Persia in regard to
Bahrein had had the effect of reviving equally obsolete claims on the part of
Imkey, znti dechred the real status of the island to be that of an independent
State, subject neither to Persia nor to Turkey, neither to the Wahabis nor -yet
to Maskat, nor yet to the British Government, " They then went on (para
graph I 2) :—
11 We have already, in our despatch of 22nd February so fully explained our position
and policy in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. that we have little or nothing to add. We can only
repeat that our protectorate in the Gulf is a matter of obligation rather than of right ;
that we have pledged ourselves to the Arab Chiefs who are parties to the maritime peace
to watch over the peace of the Gulf, to put down aggressions by sea, and to take
all necessary steps for the reparation of injuries inflicted on them; and that from those
obligations we cannot, in good faith, recede. Persia has not the means, even if she had
the xeill, to undertake the duty of protecting the peace of the Gulf, She has no naval,
force. Her interests as the present correspondence so well illustrates, are antagonistic
not only to these of the petty Arab Chiefs, but to those of the other great powers
whose dominions extend to the shores of the Gulf and the neighbouring seas, and it is
our deliberate opinion that even were we prepared to abandon engagements to the perfor
mance of which British faith is pledged, our withdrawal from our present position would
most probably be followed not only by war, but by a return to that state of piracy and
anarchy against which our long course of action in the Gulf has been so successfully
directed.
" We cannot too strongly impress upon Her Majesty's Government that there is no
middle course between maintaining the present state of things and an absolute abandon
ment of it, and a withdrawal from the protectorate of the Gulf at the expense of our own
good name, and all the benefits that have flowed from our policy for the last half century.
The Arab Chiefs have no confidence in Persia, and we cannot consent to be associ
ated with Persia in a duty which the Chiefs have committed to our hands alone, or to be
entangled in all the complications which concurrent action or jurisdiction with her
would bring about. If we are no longer prepared to continue the performence of the
tasks we have undertaken, we must withdraw altogether; but the consequences of such
a step would be so disastrous, not only to our nominal honour, but to the peace of the
Gulf, to the prosperity of the tribes inhabiting the littoral, and to the lives and property
of our subjects, who, during the peace of the last 50 years, have settled on the shores
and embarked enormous capital in the pearl fisheries and the trade with the mainland,
that we cannot contemplate this course as one of the considerations of which Her Majesty's
Government cannot for a moment entertain."
93. The Turkish Government also had to say something (through their
The Turkish protest, .870. Minister in London) in protest against the
recent British proceedings, as in 1861.
ptocwdings s. h. 1870. Nos. so-s' and sS - sq - They pretended to be alarmed at acts of
British sovereignty displayed recently
over the island of Bahrein, "which was a portion of Turkish territory". In reply to
this remonstrance Lord Clarendon told the Ottoman Minister that the British
Government could not recognize the Turkish claim to the Sovereignty of Bahrein.