Page 230 - Gulf Precis(II)_Neat

208 [Part VI—Chap. XIiIV.

decided on ft point of apparently such minor importance. X had however mentioned in that
communication that I posso*sed no instructions from tho Government, but that I would
mako ft referenco to Bombay on the subjoct. Undor these circumstances, and especially referring
to his promiso given to my Assistant Captain Edmunds that ho would take no steps in regard
to placin'- himself under the authority or protection of any foreign Power without first com­
municating with the British Residency, 1 said that I did not think tho Shaik had acted
either so openly or fairly as ho ought to havo done, considering tho intimalo naturo of his
relations with the British Government, in having entered into an ongagemout with Khorshid
Pasha without first giving us specific notice of his intimation to do so. In reply to my
observations tho Shaik said that ho oonsidored tho object of his writing tho lottor referred to
was sufficiently oxplicit, that on tho receipt of tho roply informing him that ho himself was
the best judge as to tho expediency or otherwise of sending ono of his _ relations to Lahsah,
ho had given up all hopes of cither support or assistance from tbo British, that considering
hirasolf thus left to his own uuassisted i©sources, and finding himsolf threatened with a war
with Aboothabce, his trade harassed by tho aggressions of Esa-bin-Tareef, his Bed win
subjects on tho main going over in great numbers to Khorshid Pasha, who was then threaten­
ing an invasion, considering moreover tho difficulty of defending Bahrein from au attack
if made Irora tho opposite coast, there being many places where in a few hours a fleet of a
hundred boats could mako its way across, without tho possibility of being approached by either
ship or bugla on account of the shallow water and numerous shoals: taking, ho repeated, all
these circumstances into consideration, ho thought his own interests were best consulted by
his agreeing to pay tho Pasha so trifling a sum, as little more than 2,000 dollars a year, to
secure the integrity of his own territories, and the undisturbed possession of his own authority
over them, as it had been expressly stipulated by him that no agents of tho Pasha were to
reside in Bahrein. I replied, that the Shaik had entered into a very serious engagement,
which by binding him to consider the friends and enemies of Khorshid Pasha as his own
might for aught he knew place him sooner or later in hostile relatione with the British Gov­
ernment, and therefore as it was opposed to the spirit of tho first article of our Treaty with
the pncificated Arabs, which pledged him as ono of its mombers to the maintenance of u lastiog
peaco with tho English, I felt certain that my own Government would not sanction it, and
therefore I considered it my duty to baud him a distinct protest agaiu>t it. The Shaik after
having read this protest which is nearly tho same
Copy and translation of a protest mads to as tho one which I thought it advisable
Khorshid Pasha against exacting a tribute
from Bahrein. to send to Khorshid Pasha and of which a
oopy and translation is now enclosed for the
information of the Government- Again expressed hia regret that ho had not been
made sufficiently aware before that the support of the British Government would
have been afforded him, but that after having written the letter ho had referred
to, he did not think that any blame oould attach to him. On my poiuting out
that upwards of three months had elapsed between the dato of tho communication
in question, and that of the engagement he had entered into with the Pasha,
in which interval his interview with Captain Edmunds, and the visit of Rear-Admiral
Maitland, must have made him quite aware of the views of the English Government with
reference to the proceedings of that personage, he replied that toe engagement alluded to
had been negotiated before the arrival of the Wellesley and the date actually affixed, only
t
marked the period when it was finally ratified. The Shaik adverting to my remark touching
the possibility of his engagement with the Pasha placing him iu hostile relations with us,
observed that such a contingency could never occur; it was true, ho added, that he had beeu
compelled by the pressure of ciroumstances, for hi9 own preservation, to mako certain arrange­
ments, but that on the Pasha calling upon him at any time to act in opposition to the views
of the British Government he should always consider it quite a sufficient reply that he
had been forbidden compliance by us. Upon my pressing this point further, he 6aid that
both himself and every other Arab detested being at all connected with, or coming under the
rule of the Egyptians, and that if the British Government would givo him a distinct aud
written pledge, to protect him, and his, from all attacks and aggressions of Khorshid Pasha
and the Arab tribes connected with him, that he would drop all further connexion with the
Pasha, and intimating that we had disapproved of the agreement he had entered into, avow
himself a dependent of Great Britain. In my asking the Shaik to givo me a fow line* to the
above effect, to enable me to submit them to tho authorities in India, he declined doing 60,
saying that for tho present at least he had got rid of a pressing evil by a comparatively
trifling sacrifice and he would not therefore give a document which might seriously commit
himself, until he received the fullest and most satisfactory assurances from the Government
of its protection, and even then, he 6aid, that to preserve his own consistency, ho must
decline compliance with the terms of his agreement with tho Pasha upon the grounds, that
they were displeasing to us. Towards tho conclusion of the interview when I remarked to
the Shaik that he appeared more inclined to connect himself with the Egyptian than the
British Government, he seemed alarmed and altered his tone, saying, that he
rejoiced beyond measure to find that tho encroachments of Khorshid Pasha in this direction
were so displeasing to England and that were this generally known among tho Maritime
Arabs and Bcdowins it would diffuse universal joy—that nothing! but the skill with which
the Egyptian Commander had availed himself of the unhappy feuds and divisions among the
tribes coidd have enabled him to establish himself in Central Arabia, with such a compara­
tively small force, but that in the event of Ibrahim Pasha suffering any check or defeat from