Page 594 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF TIIE PERSIAN GULF
08
sent some influential men to induce the Towashes and others to return. He
also wrote to the Shaikh of Bahrain asking him not to give them asylum, and
addressed the offending Towashes promising them good treatment in the
future. The letters not haying produced the desired effect, Shaikh Mubarak
sent his son, Shaikh Salim, in his launch to the pearl banks and Bahrain as
envoy, and he succeeded in inducing all to return with the exception of Hilal
Umtairi, the wealthiest man in Kuwait.
The season was a good one, the catch though not extraordinarily large
was above average quality and prices ruled high.
No pearl divers were required at the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries during
the year and therefore no passes were issued for them.
• The British India Steam Navigation Company’s slow fortnightly mail-
steamers have continued to call at
Shipping.
(Kuwait. Only one fast steamer called
in the year, as a special case, to accommodate Shaikh Mubarak’s Bombay
Agent. ’ The Agency launch “Lewis Pelly” has regularly run to and from
Fao fortnightly with the Kuwait mails. The arrangement is a costly one to
Government but has worked well.
The British India slow mails were very irregular towards the close of
the year thereby causing great inconvenience and loss to merchants.
The Bombay-Persia Steam Navigation Company’s vessels, since Septem­
ber, discontinued calling at Kuwait for want of cargo.
Only two steamers of Bucknall’s Steam Navigation Company called
at Kuwait; one brought for Shaikh Mubarak 400 tons coal and the other to
load dates. No other Company's vessels have visited the port.
Shaikh Mubarak’s relations with shipping Companies and their
Agents have been friendly. The British India Managing Agents would,
however, do well to avoid irregularities in the calling of their vessels if they
do not desire a repetition of the boycotting to which the Shaikh has before
subjected them.
Early in January Mr. Zeytoon, of Messrs. Zeytoon, Livingstone & Co.
of Bushire, visited Kuwait to settle
Foreigners and Travellers.
accounts with the firm of the late Haji
Muhammad Taqi, an arms merchant of Kuwait.
Visits of Messrs. Vram, Nichan, Hagasse and Elbaz have already been
noticed under “ Arms traffic.”
Fateh Ullab, a Baghdadi Christian, arrived in February to practise as a
dentist, but left for Maskat after a month. He usually visits Kuwait in the
winter months.
In April, Mr. R. I. Money, Consulting Engineer to the National Bank
of Turkey, and his companion-interpreter, Faud Bey, a Turkish Foreign office
official, arrived in Kuwait. They called on the Shaikh at Sirra where he was
then camped and also visited Ivathama bay in the Political Agent’s company.
Mr. Money severely criticized the terms of the Baghdad railway concession
and was not enthusiastic over the commercial possibilities of Kathama bay as
a terminus. They left for Basrah on the 10th by the overland route being pro­
vided with transport by the Shaikh. Their visit to Kathama bay created
some wild gossip, even the Shaikh being so far carried away that he built a
shed to secure the best site on the foreshore there.
In the same month, one Abdul Messih Antaki Bey, the proprietor erf the
Cairo newspaper “ A1 Amran,” came on a begging visit ana left for Basrah
after a few days stay.
A surprise visits was paid to Kuwait, on the 14th’ of June, by M. Serge
Toukholka, Russian Consul at Basrah, accompanied by his dragoman and an
orderly. They came by a native boat armed with a letter of introduction
from the Wali of Basrah to Shaikh Mubarak. The Political Agent showed
him the sights of the town and the same evening he was persuaded to return
by sea, though he desired to travel overland. Shaikh Salim, who represented