IOR/R/15/2/5

The contents of the file relate to British jurisdiction over the slave trade in the Gulf. Folios 1b-11 are a letter dated 28 January 1914 (with enclosures dating back to June 1913) from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (John Lorimer) to the Political Agent in Bahrain (Major Arthur Trevor). The letter refers to a proposal from the India Office in London, that the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and the Political Agent in Bahrain be given legal jurisdiction in slave trade cases arising in the Gulf. A number of the enclosures included with the letter are memoranda exchanged between officials in the India Office and Foreign Office in London, noting the legal difficulties in providing jurisdiction over the slave trade in the Persian coast and Bahrain courts, because neither are in His Majesty’s dominions, or are an East African court, which already had jurisdiction in slave trade matters (folio 8).

To circumvent these difficulties, a new slave trade treaty with the Shaikh of Bahrain was proposed, under instruction from the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. Drafts of the new treaty (in English and Arabic, folios 15-18), which was in part based on the 1873 Slave Trade treaty with Muscat and the 1882 Slave Trade Convention with Persia, were forwarded by Trevor to the Resident in March 1914.