File 791/1904 Pt 1 'Orders-in-Council: Persian Coast and Islands' [‎210r] (152/357)

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may at any time lead to grave inconvenience. For example; at present a
person deported from Karman to Bombay could return to Bushire or Bandar
Abbas with impunity ; again, property in Karman could not be distrained in
execution of a decree passed in the Court at Bandar Abbas, unless proceedings
were commenced afresh in Karman.
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12. A consideration of the foregoing review of our judicial position in
Southern Persia under the two Orders in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. can scarcely result in any
conclusion but that the state of affairs is defective and unsatisfactory and
demands readjustment; but before venturing to make any proposals in the
latter direction, it will be convenient if I examine the circumstances which
gave rise to the Present Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. and the motives which actuated its
authors.
18. In 1866 the Foreign Office instructed Mr. Logies, then the Judge and
Consul-General at Constantinople, to prepare the draft of a Foreign Jurisdiction
Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. for Persia, and forwarded to him a tentative draft drawn up
by their Law Officers for the whole of that country.
The Foreign Office having proposed that the Resident at Bushire should
communicate with Mr. Logies, the then Resident, Colonel Pelly, did so by
letter on the 3rd October 1866. This letter contemplated that the arrange
ments for the littoral of the Gulf should be distinct from those for the interior.
Correspondence on the subject continued for ten years and in 1877 Lord
Salisbury in a Despatch dated 11th April stated that he entertained no doubt
that Her Majesty had extra territorial jurisdiction in Persia, especially in the
Gulf. He suggested that in lieu of an Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. applying to the whole
of Persia an Order should in the first instance be issued applying to the Persian
shore of the Gulf only and “ not assuming more jurisdiction than was per
mitted, but going to the undoubted extent of that jurisdiction.”
In order to enable the Resident and his Assistants to deal diplomatically
with cases where necessary he considered it essential that the Resident at
Bushire, his two Assistants and TJncovenanted Assistant should be commis
sioned as Consul-General, Consuls and Vice-Consul.
At that time His Majesty’s Government was represented in the Persian
Gulf by 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. at Bushire with his staff and by a Political
Agent at Maskat. There were no Consular Officers at Karmanshah, Shiraz,
Mohammerah, Ispahan, Karman or elsewhere in Central and Southern Persia,
as at present. /
14i. After further correspondence it was determined that the judicial
functions of the officers in the Gulf should be disconnected from their Consular
powers ; and that the Foreign Jurisdiction Order should be worked by Judicial
Commissioners having concurrent jurisdiction over the whole territory com
prised in the Order, and nominated by the Governor-General in India, subject
to the approval of the Secretary of State for India in Council.
It was further decided that the Resident at Bushire should at once be
commissioned as Consul-General for the province of Fars and the Persian
Coast and Islands, the question of Consular powers for his subordinates stand
ing over pending suggestions from the Government of India.
As was pointed out in a Memorandum by Mr. F. S. Reilly, apparently one
of the Law Officers of the Crown, the Order differed considerably in general .
character from other Foreign Jurisdiction Orders. This difference arose, he
said, mainly from the nature of the official position of the Officers by whom
the Order was to be worked, whose subordination was not to the Imperial Gov
ernment but to the Government of India.
Further correspondence on points of detail followed and it was not until
1889 that the Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. for the Persian Coasts and Islands was issued,
simultaneously with one for Persia,
The former Order underwent revision in 1907, but its special characteris
tics remained substantially unaltered.