NEW MOVE BY PERSIA

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 11

NEW MOVE BY PERSIA

Claim To Bahrain Island

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TEHERAN, November 12. The Shah of Persia has instructed his Cabinet to present a bill to Parliament making Bahrain Island, a British-protected State in the Persian Gulf, a province of Persia. Britain rejected Persian claims to the island—which lies opposite Persia—in 1952. The 200-square-mile island, with some 120,000 persons, is an important oil centre with a big refinery. Oil operations are carried out by the Bahrain Petroleum Company, registered in Canada, but owned by American interests. The local ruler, Sheik Sulman Bin Hamad Al Khalifah, is advised by British officials. Britain and Persia are allied in the Bagdad Pact, the Middle East defence organisation which also includes Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq. Britain’s view of Persia’s claim —often expressed in the past—is that Bahrain State is bound to the United Kingdom Government by treaties dating over a continuous period since 1820. In a Note to Persia on May 1, 1952. the British Government said that it did not recognise the claim of the Persian Government to Bahrain “nor to any territory belonging to any State under British protection in the Persian Gulf.” In London, Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent said that Britain must continue to give full backing to the ruler of Bahrain as an independent sheik. “Britain has consistently maintained the claims of the ruler of Bahrain to independent status in the face of the Persian view that the island falls within Persian sovereignty.”