Page 281 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

AND TITE MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR THE YEAR 1007-1900. 97
dead. The Nnkhodns of both the boats took their cod?plaints with due expedi­
tion to Sheikh Esa, but owing to intrigues with the Chief’s servants and
underhand negotiations with the various Knzis of importance, no judicial
investigation was attempted, in spito of tho Political Agent’s repeated protests
until January 1908. Tho usual excuse given was that one or the other party
was engaged on tho pearl-banks, and the result of tho protracted delay was
that the Al bu Falasa leaders, wlio had come to tho conclusion that they were
the most out of favour, went off in the autumn of 1907 to Katif to ask for
Turkish protection, and subsequently on the same errand to Basrah, where,
according to local gossip, they rcccivod a favourable reply. In January 1908,
the Political Resident after discussing tho case with the Political Agent,
addressed an emphatic remonstrance to Shaikh Esa about the delay, pointing
out the danger of allowing the feud to drag on unsettled into tho next pearl­
ing season, aud insisting on the necessity for taking serious notice of the breach
of the maritime peace.
Several weeks then elapsed, and the parties had only appeared once before
the Head Kazi, when at last the Chief wrote to the Political Agent, early in
tho commencement of tho current year, to the effect that the A1 bu Falasa
tribe had in fact defied him and were contemplating removal from Bahrain
en masse. Some progress was then made with the case, but as it has not yet
been definitely concluded the account of its settlement must be deferred to
next year.
In August 1907, the marriage was celebrated with considerable eclat of
two young grand-children of the Chief. The bridegroom was Shaikh Khalifa,
son of Shaikh Esa’s eldest son, Salman, who died in 1893, and the bride was a
daughter of Sheikh Rashid, tho Chief’s third son, who died in 1902. As tho
cause of both Salman and Rashid’s death was tuberculosis, the augury for the
young couple’s future is uot very promising.
In the same month a Persian book-seller and contributor to Persian
newspapers of articles, hostile to the British Government, named Agha
Muhammad Ardakani, was expelled from Bahrain by the Chief, after the
Political Agont had shown to the latter an example of the man’s writings.
In November 1907, a serious fracas occurred in the Manama Bazar
between some hundred Kowait divers and a number of Turkish military
deserters, loafers and shop-keepers. The Kowait men recognized a Basri who
had absconded a few years previously, when a diver, from one of their boats.
After some days’ pour parlers with the man who gave a surety, a converted
Christian shop-keeper, for the satisfaction of any claims legally proved against
him, the Kowaitis suddenly attempted, on tho eve of their departure
from Bahrain, to rush the defendant and his surety on board a boat without
troubling about any legal formalities. The two men were rescued by their
compatriots and in the ensuing scuffle seven Basris were severoly wounded with
knives and staves, while an equal number of Kowaitis received less severe
contused wounds. All the injured men were brought to the Agency Hospital,
and though the local feeling among the Sheikhs and other Arabs was at first
strongly in favour of the Kowaitis, the excitement soon died down when the
circumstances became generally known, and it was found that two of the
Basris, who suffered from concussion of the brain, were in serious danger. It
was arranged that the Basri injured men should remain in the hospital uutil
tho caso came on for trial and was disposed of, while the Kownit leaders were
made to execute a bond not to leave the port with any of their three boats for
the same period. After the expiry of a fortnight, when only one Basrah man
remained under treatment, the caso was heard by the Chief Kazi, Shaikh Jasim-
bin-Mahza*, with the Agency Interpreter attending ; and after two sittings an
amicable settlement was arrived at on the Kazi’s suggestion, under which the
Kowaitis paid the Basris R9. 300 as compensation for their severer injuries, and
the iucidont was declared to bo closed.
On the 13th November 1907, the Persian Haji Abdun Nabi Kal Ewaz,
who bad been tho Port Landing Contractor for cargo from steamers for sovond
years, was dismissed from bis post by the ChioC for the apathy and nogleet
with which he had bom carrying on his work, and the work was transferred to
a Syndicate of Ewazi (Sunni) Porsians whose chief agents are Abdul Aziz