'British protectorate over the Arabian coast from Shaikh Said to Oman (Muscat)' [‎138r] (5/8)

5
out attracting attention, it might perhaps be
possible to avoid increasing the suspicions of the
Sultan in connection with British policy and pro
ceedings in that region.
15. The Viceroy of India having been communi
cated with telegraphed on the 5th May 1887 that
the Resident at Aden was prepared to-undertake
negotiations with the tribes other than the Amiri
in a manner which would not excite Turkish sus
ceptibilities, and that the moment was favourable
for dealing with the Mahri. Wahidi, and Akrabi.
The Secretary of State for India (Viscount Cross)
accordingly proposed to the Foreign Office that
the Resident at Aden should take the necessary
measures for concluding Protectorate Agreements
with the tribes in question.
16. Negotiations were then in progress at Con
stantinople for the conclusion of a convention with
Turkey in regard to Egypt, and the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs was of opinion that it
was very desirable that nothing should occur to
excite suspicion or distrust on the part of the
Sultan or his ministers, and, in consequence, the
Resident at Aden was instructed not to enter into
Telegram to Viceroy, 17th May 1887. negotiations with the Aden tribes without further
orders.
Secret Letter, 19th August 1887. 17. The Government of India having now ex
pressed a hope that the scheme advocated by them
will not he postponed to “a very distant date,”
Viscount Cross has proposed to the Foreign Office
that instructions should be issued to negotiate with
the Mahri, Wahidi, and Akrabi tribes for the con
clusion of Protectorate Agreements, based on the
model of our recent treaty with the Sultan of
of Socotra, and has solicited an expression of the
views of the Marquis of Salisbury on the general
scheme of a British Protectorate over the Arabian
Coast from Shaikh Said to the borders of Oman.
18 The risk that will be incurred in establishing
a British Protectorate over these tribes is that Turkey
may protest against the measure as an infraction
of her sovereign rights over this portion of Arabia,
but Her Majesty’s Government have repeatedly
repudiated this claim to sovereignty on the part of
the Porte, and, therefore, the pretensions of the
Sultan need not be considered an obstacle in the
way of sanctioning the proposals of the Govern
ment of India. But whether it is prudent in
existing circumstances for Great Britain to take a
step calculated to provoke the ill will of the Porte
is a question for Her Majesty’s Government to
decide.
E. N.
Secret and Political Department,
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ,
1st November 1887.