File 1508/1905 Pt 1 'Bahrain: situation; disurbances (1904-1905); Sheikh Ali's surrender; Question of Administration Reforms (Customs etc)' [‎98r] (200/531)

(Confidential.)
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No. 1873 E.-B.
The SECRETABY to the
GOVERNMENT of INDIA
in the Foreign Department,
To
Major P. Z. COX, c.i.e.,
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. .
Dated Simla, the 17th May 1905,
Sir,
I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 123, dated
the 11 th March 1905, regarding the affairs of Bahrein, and your proposals for
improving the administration of the island.
< 2 . The Government of India are prepared to accept your view that
Sheikh Esa, although he has been brought to a sense of his obligations towards
the Government of India by the recent demonstration of his powerlessness to
maintain a recalcitrant attitude in the face of their displeasure, is, at the
same time, so lacking in vigour and natural qualifications as to make
it unlikely that he will ever discharge adequately his duties as Ruler of an
island possessing the possibilities of development presented by Bahrein. From
this consideration you have been tempted to express the opinion that it is a
matter for regret that the exigencies of Imperial politics do not admit of our
making our moral protectorate over the island into an open and effective one,
and you have proceeded to adumbrate the picture of Bahrein under British
rule as a convenient centre of British influence in these waters. The even
tualities you have sketched are, in your own words, visionary and remote, and
their relevancy is not apparent in any discussion of the problems connected
with the government of Bahrein in the immediate future. With regard to
this portion of your letter therefore, I am to say that it would he superfluous to
discuss, or even to contemplate, a contingency calling for any measures so
distasteful to the views of His Majesty’s Government, and so foreign to the
policy which they are pursuing in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
3. Turning now to the actual situation, as it presents itself in Bahrein,
the Government of India cannot but share the disappointment which you must
experience that the immediate results of the ultimatum are hardly what might
have been expected, so far as the improvement in the administration of the
island is concerned. For this state of affairs, it is admitted, the deficiencies of
the Chief himself are to blame, and as the remedy of setting aside Sheikh Esa
is one which they see no present expediency in contemplating, the Govern
ment of India concur with you in holding that the effect of the recent
demonstration must not be sacrificed, and that the Sheikh ought to be
required, and required at once, to introduce such reforms into his administra
tion as are held to be necessary. At the same time it is necessary to bear in
mind that our new proposals must be both so framed and so presented to the
Chief as to obviate the necessity for another intervention and further threatened
bombardment; and, in order to effect this end, it appears to the Government
of India that the influence which they should now be able to exercise through