Page 44 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

22 Part I.

Tho Shallah Island is about tbirty-two miles below Mohammcrab and six miles abovo and
within sight of tho Turkish Custom House at Dawosir. Shallah appears to bo no name but
in Arabic a generic term meaning out-growth, and it is well it should have been applied in
this ease, for this is really no island but a bank, which had it boon loft alono would oveu now
have been covered by every tide.
The bed of tho Shat-cl-Arab at this point is broader than usual, being about tbreo
thousand yards wide on account of tho bank on tho Persian sido forming a sort of bay, and
the island is about one thousand yards from tho Persian and two thousand from tho Turkish
shore, and situated as it were in the month of this Persian bay. Tho result is that whatovor
it might have been originally the whole force of the current now is bctwcou the island and
tho Turkish bank, while the bay is fast filling up; even now a man can wado at low lido
from the island to the Persian bank, and thoro is no question but that in a few yoara more
tho island will become a portion of tho Persian mainland. To describe the island would
be to take a piece of swampy alluvial soil two, three or say oven four acres in extent, for
I oould not well measure it, form this into a parallelogram twice ns long up and down the
river as broad and surround it with an embankment of clay and reeds suflicicnt to keep out tho
ripple of the high tides but with slits to allow of irrigation, surround this with a fringo of
bulrushes, in extent three times tho area of tho parallelogram but at high tide under water
Buliicicnt to float a boat, and we have a very fair idea of Shallah Island. Tho Persian bauk
of the Shat-cl-Arab opposite this island is low and apparently uninhabited, while the Turkish
bank is abrupt and covered with a forest of dato trees and is tho privnto property of Ilis Excel­
lency Nasir Pasha. Thus Nasir Pasa as private proprietor of the opposite bank built thoombauk-
mentofclay and ree ls on the island and in 1876 plantod somo offshoots of date trees, while two
or three cultivators sowed melons and gourds, but never permanently lived there. That Nasir
Pasha had some ulterior object in view in making this ombankment is certain, for tho placo is
so wretched that not a family of cultivators, however poor, would accept the island as a gift on
condition of having to live there permanently.
81. While this question was pending Turkey and Russia became involved
in war and much anxiety was felt as to tho attitude Persia would take on this
occasion. Persia massed its troops on tho frontier, despatching a force of 1,000
men and 200 horses to Mohammcrah; but ultimately tho Shah’s Government
docidod to remain neutral. The Persians had however a large number of
grievances against the Turks, including the question of the Turkish occupation
of Shallah, which they embraced this favourable occasion to get remedied.
The principal points at issue were :—
(1) the seizure of Katur and other places ;
(2) ill-treatment in Turkey of Persian subjects generally and pilgrims on
particular;
(3) the continued residence of the Shah’s brother Mirza Abbas at Bagh­
I dad where he had resided for twelve years in defence of an
official promise given in writing by the Porte ;
(4) the rocent outrage at Medina ;
(5) the non-settlement of the IWco-Persian boundary question;
(6) the occupation of the island of Shallah by the Turks, which tho
I Persians claim to be their own, on the analogy of the island Khizr
near which it lies and which had been given to Persia by the
treaty of Erzeroum.
The Shah’s Government have always been claiming the most favoured nation
clause, which it was impossible for Persia to expect from Turkey, considering4
the fact that both nations are in a backward condition, and that England her-
scif could not recommend to a foreign power what he could not herself concede
to that Power, namely, the reciprocity of privilege in their nature abnormal
and exceptional. In the matter of the recent outrages against Persian subjects
at Medina, Turkey agreed to depute a commission to make enquiries, but
refused to allow a Persian to be represented on the commission. The Porte also
agreed to remove the Persian Prince to Constantinople.
82. On the question of the island of Shallah, the Porte agreed to evacuate
the place, provided Persia would engage not erect buildings on it until the
question of its ownership should be decided by the International Frontier Com­
mission. Nasir Pasha, Governor of Basrah, was accordingly ordered to evacuate
t ic island, and Dr. Colvill was sent down to the place to aoe that the order was
carried out.