"14/172 I المجلد ب. ٦٨. السواحل العربية ومسائل متنوعة" [ظ‎‎١‎٦‎١] (٤٢٠/٣٣١)

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15 On the 28t.li April 1888 the Resident communicated to the Minister
rpg^gj-r^n a copy of the translation of a leport diawn^ up locally for the
Amin-es-Sultan, which he had obiained privately, relative to the Persian
claims It appears that " there was nothing fresh in this report beyond a
new claim put forward to the island of Abu Musa," which, again to quote the
Resident, " has no justification whatever." In the summer of the same year
(26th July) the Minister telegraphed to Bnshire that a reply had now been
received from the Persian Government that " as the Jowasimi Sheikhs were
Persian Governors of Lingah, they considered no further proof of the justice
of their claim necessary." To this the Resident replied that the Persian
reply begged the question, and that the Arab contention as regards Sirri was
that the Jowasimi Sheikhs of Lingah represented the family, and derived no
right from their position towards the I ersian Government.
16. In order to facilitate the disposal of other negotiations. His Majesty's
Government decided in August 1888 tacitly to acquiesce in the Persian
occupation of Sirri. Save, however, by such acquiescence, to which
reference was made in official correspondence with Persia in 1904 (see
para. 21 below), they have never in any way admitted or withdrawn their
original objections to the claim of the Shah's Government to the ownership
of the island, while the Political Resident stated in 1904 that it was equally
clear from the Residency records that the Jowasimi Arab Sheikhs of the
Pirate Coast had never voluntarily dropped their claim, wdiich they had
formally reiterated in 1895, to proprietary rights over Sirri, any more than
over Abu Musa and Tamb.
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IV. Temporary Persian Occupation of Abu Musa and Tamb, 1904.
17. In January 1903 the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf reported
that, trade having to a large extent been diverted from Lingah as the result
of the short-sighted policy of the Belgian Customs officials, Lingah merchants
were endeavouring to arrange with the Bombay and Persian Navigation
Company to make the island of Abu Musa a port of call. He added that,
in view of the Sirri incident of 1887, he was apprehensive lest the result
might be the advancing of a territorial claim to this island by Persia. The
Resident stated that the island undoubtedly belonged to the Jowasimi Sheikh
of Shargah, that the Jowasimis did not, however, fly a flag on the island, and
that it might be well to advise the Sheikh of Shargah to do so as a sign of
ownership. This course was approved and action taken accordingly.
18. The question having arisen of advising the Sheikh of Ras-al-Khaima
(a sheikhdom at that time and now dependent from the Sheikh of Shargab)
to adopt a similar course in regard to the island of Tamb, which belonged
to the Ras-al-Khaima section of the Jowasimis, the Resident reported that, so
far as he was aware, sovereignty over that island had never been asserted
by Persia, that the Sheikh of Shargah in his existing capacity as Ruler of
Ras-al-Khaima claimed it as an appanage of the Jowasimis of the Arab coast,
and that he was in possession of documentary evidence in the shape of
letters from two former Arab Chiefs of Lingah admitting the claim of the
Jowasimis of the Arab coast to those islands, as against the claim of the
Jowasimis of Lingah. It was decided that the Chief should be advised to
hoist his flag on Tamb as on Abu Musa, and this was done.
19. In April 1904 the Viceroy telegraphed that the Belgian Customs
officials had placed guards on Abu Musa and Tamb, forcibly removed the
Arab flags, erected new flagstaffs and hoisted the Persian flag on both
islands. This action led to immediate protest by the Sheikh of Shargah,
who appealed to His Majesty's Government, under his treaty relations with
them, to take the necessary steps to prevent such interference in his territory.
20. The Government of India, who took a serious view r of the incident,
proposed 5 * to despatch a gunboat to the islands, with a representative of the
Sheikh of Shargah on board, to haul down the Persian flag, reinstate the
Jowasimi flag and remove the guards to Persian territory. It was decided,!
however, to give the Persian Government the opportunity to withdraw from
the position they had taken up, and on the 24th May the Minister reported
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