Page 10 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

easily the most influential foreigner in Iraq. He was famous for his hospitality and is
mentioned with gratitude in most travellers’ books. According to Layard he pos­
sessed a most valuable library with many rare books and manuscripts and he knew all
the local languages including Sabaean which he had learned from one of their priests.
He was extremely interested in opening up Iraq to British and Indian trade,
encouraging the establishment of steam navigation on the Tigris and Euphrates, and
his daughter married its pioneer Blosse Lynch. He was also active in promoting
geographical surveys and gave great help to Felix Jones whom we shall discuss later.
Anticipating Russian interest in Kurdistan, he sent his brother to explore there -
unfortunately he was killed by tribesmen. In later years he was criticised as being too
pro-Turk and this was one of the reasons for his removal from office, although after at
least 35 years continuous service in the area he must have been due for retirement
His son was Political Agent in Basra and later Consul in Diyarbakir.
Taylor was only the first of the series of Indian Army officers who made very long
and distinguished careers in the area to figure amongst the contributors to this
selection. The next in chronological order was Samuel Hennell, who updated
Warden’s reports, wrote the first original account of the Bani Yas, and has been
called by Kelly ‘without doubt the greatest Political Resident Britain has ever had in
the Gulf’. He was born in 1800, the son of a Birmingham silversmith, and in 1819
joined the Bombay Native Infantry. In 1826 he was posted to the Gulf as Assistant
Resident, remaining there for the next twenty-six years. He was the real architect of
the Trucial system that was to survive for over a century. He won the confidence of all
with whom he worked, managing to woo former pirates and hereditary enemies into
working together as respectable merchants. In 1835 he persuaded the shaykhs to
abandon the right to wage war by sea, in the first instance for a single year, and this
Maritime Truce was renewed regularly until under his successor it became the
Perpetual Treaty of Peace. He persuaded the Arabs to accept restrictions upon the
slave trade despite their reservations that this traffic was not contrary to Islamic law.
From 1837 until 1841 there were serious crises on both sides of the Gulf which, had
Hennell mishandled them, could have dragged Britain into war. He was proved right
in 1838 that it would be sufficient to impress the Persians that Britain was deter­
mined to secure their withdrawal from Afghanistan to seize Kharj Island (the
‘Karrack’ described in the first paper and now famous as the Iranian oil terminal) and
that there would be no need for a full scale invasion. The following year, when it
seemed possible that an Egyptian army might cross from Hasa to attack Bahrain,
Hennell, without orders from his superiors, assumed the responsibility of warning its
commander that such a move could bring British intervention. He later, on several
occasions, used similar initiative to dissuade the resurgent Saudis from invading
Oman. Despite his great services, he never received the knighthood awarded to many
lesser men. He died in 1880.
Hennell’s right-hand man for a decade and, like him, the updater of Warden’s
histories, was Arnold Burrows Kemball. He was the son of a former senior member of
the Indian Medical Service in Bombay and, after schooling at Addiscombe, joined the
Bombay Artillery in 1837 at the age of 17. He immediately saw service in the first
Afghan War and in 1842, while still a Lieutenant, was appointed Assistant Political
Resident in Bushire. He succeeded Hennell in 1852 but did not remain in the post
long enough to become such a great figure as his predecessor in the history of the
Gulf. However in 1853 he signed the Perpetual Treaty of Maritime Peace which
replaced the series of renewable truces. He firmly resisted Saudi claims to authority
over the Omani littoral and over Bahrain. In 1855 he was transferred to Baghdad as
Consul General and Political Agent in Turkish Arabia. He remained there for 13
years, one of the most influential men in the country. During his period of office,
British interests established commercial steam navigation on the Tigris, considered