Page 809 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL RESIDENCY, 1920. 75
able to do so. He thanked him for the return of the camels, etc., which lip
had sent, and trusted that he would now order the return of the rest of the
property, as he could not hold him excused if lie were to make any further
objection.
At the same time he issued a proclamation in Kuwait, forbidding people
to talk about Ilm Sa’ud, as, he said, lie wished to avoid all risk of rumours
reaching Ibn Sa’ud that the people were speaking ill of him.
Ibn Sa’ud was extremely angry at Shaikh Salim’s reply and wrote a long
letter to the Political Agent, Bahrain, in which he accused Shaikh Salim of
having altered his letter before showing it to the Political Agent, Kuwait, of
having treated his envoy, Nasir, with disrespect, of having arranged for men
of his own to impersonate the envoys from Ibn Bashid mentioned above, etc.
He said that as Shaikh Salim by his reply had refused the olive branch, he had
severed relations with him. If His Majesty’s Government considered that
British interests were affected, lot her fix frontier between Najd and Kuwait.
If, on the other hand, she did not wish to interfero, let her say so, and he would
make his own arrangements. He asked for a reply one way or the other as
6oon as possible, and added that personally he would like His Majesty’s Govern­
ment to settle the dispute. His reply to Shaikh Salim, which just fell short
of being a declaration of war, was received in Kuwait on the 14th August,
and the following day the Sheikh called on the Political Agent and asked for
the good offices of His Majesty’s Government to settle the dispute.
On the 29th August Shaikh Salim was iuformed that, subject to the
concurrence of His Majesty’s Government to -whom he was making reference
on the subject, the Civil Commissioner agreed to appoint an arbitrator early in
the autumn, to decide upon the territory at issue between them provided that
both he and Ibn Sa’ud (to whom the same message was being conveyed) agreed
in advance in writing to accept, each for his own lifetime on his own behalf
and that of his people, the decision of the Arbitrator, and to give effect thereto.
Meanwhile it was essential that both parties should keep the peace, and neither
countenance any sort of agression.
Shaikh Salim replied that, in addition to the question of the frontier
between his territory and Najdj he had other disputes with Ibn Sa’ud which
required settling before a real peace was possible, viz., Faisal ad-Dawish’s
attack on Ilamdk in May and the question of restitution for the lives and
property lost; Ibn Sa’ud’s action in taking zakat from the ’Awazim ; and the
raids by Ibn Sa’ud’s tribes on his own. This point was considered, and lie was
told on 8th September, that the question of Dawish’s attack was so bound up
with the boundary question that it would be included in the Arbitration, but
that the other two questions could not be included, as it had always been the
custom for Bedouin tribes to pay zakat to whomsoever they thought best able
to protect them from their enemies at the time being, or to him who had
sufficient power or prestige to enforce its payment. Baids and counter-raids
too, were normal routine in Arabia and it was improbable that any amount of
Arbitration would stop them.
On tho 17th September Shaikh Salim submitted a long letter, accepting
all the questions of Arbitration laid down by Government, and, as both parties
had also been asked to do, stating the frontier which he claimed i.nd the
reasons on which based his claim. He claimed;—Tho islands of Muralla-
miyali and Jinnah. From the coast, west of the island of Jinnah, through
the village of Anta*, the wells of Wabrah, Habah, Qar’ah, Safah and
Hafar al-Batin, all inclusive, and tlionce north-east along the Batin. lie
said that the islands of Musallamiyah and Jinnah had for years been
resorted to by Kuwait pearl divers, and might be described as their port.
They had always been counted as belonging to tho Buler of Kuwait up to the
year 1902, when tho Turks established a post there. Begarding Anta’;
he said that its inhabitants always resort to Kuwait they engage in the
pearl diving with the people of Kuwait, and all their work is connected with
Kuwait. He said that tho tribes which drink from the above mentioned wells
want him and not Ibn Sa’ud, and that until tho present dispute arose and trade
was stopped, caravans from Kuwait wore under his protection until they
arrived at these wells. The above frontier loss the Islands of Musallamiyah

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