Page 81 - Gulf Precis (V)_Neat

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9. In submitting this roport Colonel Kcmball in his letter No. 16 datod
18th April 1866, observed :—
“ Tho matter therein ifien/ioned indicated incidentally the policy which Nainik Pasha
seems disposed to initiate xn regard to Koweit, which policy, on the arrival of the two steam
Corvettes lately detached from Constantinople for service in the Persian Gulf, he will probably
endeavour to extend to other ports on the Arabian Coast.
Knweit is a free port of considerable inportance; its Chief acknowledges fealty to the
Sultan, and its numerous vessels carry the Ottoman Fla", but the inhabitants (who are exclu­
sively Arab) pay neither tax nor tribute to tho Turkish Treasury. The actual relation of th«
Sheikh of Kowcit to the Porte is similar with that of tho Sheikhs of the greater ]3cdouin tribes,
who receive monthly allowances respectively from Baghdad, Mosul, Orfa, Aleppo, and
Damascus, in consideration of their maintaining the security of the roads, or, more properly
6peaking, of their abstaining from pillaging the settled districts bordering on the desert. Hie
feudal obligation, if I may use the term, is to protect the shores of the Shat-el- Arab from Foreign
attack by sea, for which service, a service that ceased to bo real when the British Government
undertook the Police of the Persian Gulf, he continues to receive an annual quota of dates front
the government of Bussorah,”
10. In bis despatch dated 16th May 1S0G, Colonel Kembal (Cousul General
at Baghdad) further raported:—
u Referring to the enclosure to my despatch No. 15 of 18th ultimo, I take this oppor­
tunity to mention that Abdullah cl Subah, the son of the Chief of Koweit, having come it
person to Baghdad to defend his cause against tho Zehoyr family of Zobair, and having suc­
ceeded in this object, also returned to Bussorah per steamer on the 3rd instant. On discussing
the matter with me His Excellency expressed his conviction that the right lay on the Koweit
side. This conviction, I apprehend, may have been quickened by the knowledge that, did
Abdullah es Subah fail, his fathor was prepared to maintain his suit by force agaiost Za.bair,
to which end he was assured of the countenance and armed support of Amir Abdullah, the
"Wahabi Ruler”.
11. The following report of Colonel Kemball (No. 56, tinted 26th Jime
1866) in regard to the opposition of tho Sheikh cf Koweit to make Kpweit
a port of call for British Indian Steam Nevigation Company’s Steamejs for
fear of the Turks, is very interesting.
“ Adverting to tho peculiar position politically considered of the Sheikhs and people .of
Opposition of Shtikh of Koweit make Koweit a Koweit ns set forth in former despatches and .to
ort of call for BritixA India Steam navigation the suspicions aud apprehensions which recent
otnpiny’s .itrameri 1SCC. events in the Persian Gulf have excited in tho
Bombay Volume 97 of I860.
mind of Namilc Pasha, I venture to submit to His
Excellency the Hon'ble the'Governor in Council, tho expediency of inviting the British Indian
Steam Navigation Company, to suspend for a while the visits of its vessels to that Port.
I am aware that as a matter of right neither could tho Turkish authorities object to tho
extension of Commercial intercourse by British vessels to any point within tbe limits of
Ottoman territory, nor could the Arab community of Koweit decline such intercourse. Yet
both parties, and more especially the lattor, though sincerely desirous of maintaining the most
friendly relations with the English, arc by the force of circumstances rendered averse from
this arrangement, and it is accordingly ou the interests of tho company that I would recom­
mend it to forego temporarily its undoubted privilege.
Unlike Bahrein, Koweit has ever avowed tho suzerainty of the Porte and has ever been
recognised to be a Turkish dependency', but in the very weakness of the Suzerain originated a
policy in its part, which, while affording the surest guarantee of virtual independence relieved
the Feudatory from contracting engagements to other foreign powers.—This policy bas hitherto
been justified by the oharactcr and oonduct of the dominant family. Their Port being free,
their commercial relations have involved no responsibilities and, strong euough to cause tbeir
rights to be respected by neighbouring cognate Principalities, they have uniformly avoided
any cause of umbrage or offence to the Government which now for nearly half a century has
exercised paramount authority in the Persian Gulf : I am unable to call to mind a single ins­
tance of maritime irregularity committed'by the inhabitants of Koweit during that period
and even in tho matter .of the Slave Xrade .wherein their obligations ware equivocal tho
remonstrances of English functionaries have always boon received by them with deference and
ostensibly at least have not remained without effect.
‘But-recent events by attracting-the.attention of tho Turkish authorities to Arabia .have
seriously compromised the presoriptivo freedom of Koweit, and if tho measures now under
contemplation should bo.prosecutod to extremity as the advent of Turkish Corvettes to tho
Gulf would pretend may nob improbably issue in the dissolution of tho flourishing Community
IJnder 6Uch circumstances it is not perhaps surprising that tho Sheikh of Koweit by.the mouth
of his 6on, then on a visit at Bussorah, should havo. entreated Mr. Johnston, the British Agent
there, to dissuado the Commanders of Mail'Steamers from touching at his Port, so long as