'Status of the Islands of Tamb, Little Tamb, Abu Musa, and Sirri' [‎26v] (8/8)

Pol. Res. to Minister,
Teheran, Dec. 13
1898.
t Viceroy to S. of S.
for I., Feb. 16 1908,
P.864/08
37. As regards the merits of that claim, the historical summary above
shows that the history of the islands prior to 1750 is obscure; that sin e
that date such authority and such effective occupation as there has be n
has had its source in the Jowasimi Arabs, who between 1750 and ISzAh
exercised in the Gulf a maritime control uncontested by Persia. There is
nothing to show that those Arabs, having obtained a footing on the Persian
coast, thence derived authority over outlying islands. Probability suggests
rather that they carried with them to their new settlement a position in the
islands which they already possessed. The fact that a section of these Arab
intruders later acquired the status of Persian subjects, and held their
authority on the Persian coast in subordination to the Persian Government
as local Chiefs or Governors, cannot affect any original rights the Jowasimi
tribes on the Arab and the Jowasimi tribes on the Persian littoral may have
had in common; an intimate connection appears to have been maintained
between the two sections of the tribe, and the islands remained their common
property and did not become Persian territory ; nor, the islands being held
by a Sheikh only on behalf of the tribes, had an individual power to alienate
any sovereign territorial rights which he might enjoy qua ruler of these
tribes.t Finally, de facto possession resting with the Jowasimi Arabs of the
1 racial Coast, it would appear to be for Persia, in the absence of evidence at
any stage of effective Persian occupation or of acknowledgment by the
Trucial Arabs of Persian overlordship in the islands, to prove the case for
alteration of the status quo.
38. As between His Majesty’s Government and the Trucial Chiefs
concerned, the latter, under their treaty engagements, are entitled to the
protection of His Majesty’s Government and are not themselves allowed to
communicate or negotiate direct with any foreign Power. Apart from the
fact that their claim to the islands has consistently been upheld by His
Majesty’s Government, it was on the initiative of His Majesty’s Government
that the Jowasimi Sheikh of Shargah and Ras-al-Khaima hoisted his flan- on
lamb and Abu Musa in 1903 (see paras. 17 and 18 above).
oJ. The satisfactory disposal of the matter is important in view of its
immediate reactions on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , and the wider reactions on
Mohammedan feeling in India of disturbance in that region. But its
f T* n i tS PossiMereactions on the relations of the^Triicial Chiefs
with Ibn Sand is hardly less great
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. ,
24th August 1928.