File 200/1928 Pt 7 'Anglo-Persian Treaty Negotiations' [‎578v] (494/620)

(b) Hen jar, .
The Foreign Office apparently suggest that in
the first place Taimourtache should be told that we
hold him to his previous agreement to come to a mutually
satisfactory arrangement on this question. If, however
a formal lease cannot be secured from him, an endeavour
should be made to secure an agreement whereby the present
facilities should continue to be enjoyed by H.M. Ships
for a further specified number of years. If, however,
Taimourtache is not prepared to agree even to this, the
Foreign Office apparently would drop the matter and
only ask for sufficient time for evacuation. Their
reason for this attitude is that we have no legal right
to Henjam; that a request from the Persians to evacuate
could not be refused; and that we had better try to make
what terms we can or, if we cannot make any, to yield with
a good grace.
This is the turning point of the whole
negotiations. As stated above, Hen jam is the only
tangible advantage to be gained by H.M.G. The Foreigi
Office say that in any case we cannot insist legally on
staying at Henjam; therefore it is no use risking a
break in the negotiations over it. On the other hand,
we may legitimately answer that if we cannot get
Henjam, a treaty is really of little use to us and
therefore we can quite well risk a rupture on ^
point.
But this matter is primarily for the Admiralty,
and there is the further complication that it is not
yet definitely decided whether Henjam is essential to the
Navy or not. At the last interdepartmental meeting &t
the end of last year, the Foreign Office were all in
favour/