BAHREIN ISLANDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 5 March 1928, Page 7

BAHREIN ISLANDS.

' '(JLAIM IN DISPUTE. BEFORE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. (British Official Wireless.) HUG Li. leu. 2d. A copv oi a. Note, which has been addressed to the -Persian Minister in JLomton. Mr. H. Kalin Mossaed. by the Secretary ot State for foreign anaiis, toir Austen Chamberlain, on the sublet of the Bahrein islands, m the , email Gulf,, was. forwarded to the League of Nations to-day. lhe Note is a reply to the Persian Government « protest of November, 1927, against the terms oi Article ol the 'treatyol Jeudil, concluded on December 2S, 1910. with the King of the Hedjaz lbn fSaud Tne protest was made on the ground that the reference in that article to the islands of Bahrein was contrary to the territorial integrity ot Persia. The British Note states that the Government is not aware of any valid grounds upon which the claim ol the Persian Government to Sovereignty loer these islands is, or can he, based. Geographically the islands are. mot part ot Persia, nor are the inhabitants members of the Persian race. The British Government is aware that during pait of the 17th century, and for some years during part of the 18th century, Bahrein was over-run and occupied by Persian troops, or by the followers ot certain chiefs from the eastern shores of- the Persian Gulf. . However, says the Note, it appeals to have been ' established that m or about the year 1783 the Government of the Shall' was dispossessed of the islands by an invasion ot Arab tribes under the leadership of a direct lineal ancestor of the present Sheik, and since that date the islands have never at any time been under the effective control of Persia. The Persian Government’s allegation that its claim to sovereignty over Bahrein has been recognised on several occasions is entirely inadmissible. "The Note says further: ‘From the foregoing remarks you will observe that the British Government, neither m 1809 not at any other time, intended to recognise thais Bahrein was part or Persia and that although it has indeed admitted that a claim on the subject has from time to fame I)eßn P ut forward by the Pensian Government, it has never admitted the validity of the claims made by the Turkish and the Persian Governments. “Britain’s consistent endeavour in the matter of Bahrein has been to secure that the peaceful development of the islands and the welfare of the Arab inhabitants shall not be disturbed by unjustified attempts on the part oi then neighbours to subject them to, foreign clontillation. The British Government is not prepared to contemplate am departure from this policy.’