File 4011/1923 Pt 1 'PERSIAN GULF NEGOTIATIONS 1928-33. BASIDU.' [‎490r] (984/1306)

been always so treated up to this very hour.” The Government of India in
adding that arrangements should be made to establish a local jurisdiction
for petty criminal cases, remarked, “The official holding the trial at Basidu
would, in the eye of the law, be merely using the delegated authority of Persia,
and Muscat. ’
p- 11. The opinion as to the status of Basidu expressed in 1868 by the
Government of India, and quoted in the preceding paragraph, has since held
the field, and was maintained by them in 1875 in connection with the
proposed Persian Coast and Islands Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. .*
12. In 1878 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. in the Gulf urged that the grant of
1820 by the Sultan of Muscat and its renewal by his successor in 1861
taken with “such prescriptive right as an undistributed possession of nearly
60 years may be held to confer, constitute our title to possession . j
think it might fairly be urged that the Persian Government have been fully
aware all these years of our assumption of the prerogatives of possession at
Basidu and have by silence acquiesced.”
* India letter 208
For. Pol., Oct. 28
1875.
Lor. i, 2107-8.
Precis, pp. 19-20.
1868—1926.
13. 1 lie surrender to Persia of the British concession at Basidu, in return
for a corresponding concession at Henjam, and the transfer of the naval
station in the Gulf to the latter island, was considered in 1866-8, but was not
pursued. In 1878 the infantry detachment which had been maintained in the ^rT^ios 9
concession for the protection of the coal depot was reduced from a company '
to a havildar Custodian; police sergeant; jail or prison guard. guard, which was itself withdrawn in 1883. No detachment
has since then been stationed at Basidu. In the same year the subordinate
non-European staff were withdrawn, and the station placed in charge of a
coal agent under the ultimate control of the Bushire Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. . ^Sorne
concern was caused in 1899 by rumours of designs on Kishm by Russia,
which, however, proved unfounded, and in 1901 the Government of India’ p-76.
insti uctedf the 1 olitical Resident that 1 no official of the Persian Government ^ ^ jr- ^ es ->
can be permitted to reside in any part of the station at Basidu without the July 91901 -
express consent of the British Government.” p . 73 .
14. The question of reasserting British claims at Basidu in connection
with the extension of British influence in the Gulf was considered, and a
decision in favour of action to this end taken, by an inter-Departmental
conference in 1902, but, probably consequent on the decision of His Majesty’s
Government in 1903-4 that Henjam offered greater advantages as a site p- 66 -
lor a telegraph station, no action appears to have resulted. A further
recommendation as to the consolidation of the British position at the
entrance to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including Kishm, was made at an inter-
Departmental conference in connection with the Baghdad Railway in 1907,
but again apparently without result.
15. In 1905 a request by the Moin-ut-Tujjar for permission to store red p- 80 -
ochre in the British concession was refused, and in the same year the coal
agent was instructed by the Resident to warn a Persian Customs officer
who had interfered in the territory of the concession that “ he has no
business in British territory, and if he persists he should not be allowed to p. ss.
come within British territory.”
16. No fresh consignment of coal was landed after 1911; the coaling
station was unobtrusively transferred to Henjam in 1913 ; a proposal to
abandon the concession, on grounds of economy, was dropped, apparently for ** p. 1431 / 23 .
political reasons, in 1923. w * Since 1913 the concession has been maintained § P- 376 / 27 .
on political grounds only, its cost from the 1st April 1927 having fallen on Tei from vieeroy
ndian political funds.§ A nominal coal depot and the coal agent are, 1 ^ 4559 . A """”
however, maintained to this day, the British flag is constantly flown,!| and t Poi. Res. to g. of
the circuit house is kept up.^f B Aug. u 1926 ,
P. 3847/26.
1926-8.— Reassertion of Persian Claims.
17. In 1926 the Charge d’Affaires at Teheran reported that unofficial
enquiry had been made by the Persian Government as to the rights of