Page 273 - Gulf Precis(II)_Neat

Part VII—Chap. LII. 251

CHAPTER III.

REFUGE GIVEN TO TIIE BROTHER AND SON OF SHEIKH
ABDUL RASSUL IN THE RESIDENCY—NOVEMBER 1820.
4G2. On the night of 27th November 1826, Sheikh Naair III, the eldest
son of the late Governor Sheikh Abdul
Resident’. letter to Lioofonant:Colonol Rassul, fled from the bouse of his grand
Macdonald, Envoy nt Teheran, dated 28th Novem­
ber 1820. uncle Sheikh Ahmed, where he had
resided ever since his deposition and
28
Volume ^ of 1837, pngo 160. threw himself on the protection of the
Resident to avoid, as he declared, the
intended violonce cf Sheikh Ahmed. On such an appeal the Resident could
not hesitate to grant him an asylum; although it was his earnest wish, and had
hitherto been his invariable practice, to abstain from the slightest interference
with the squabbles at Bush ire, and in those terms ho communicated the
circumstance to Sheikh Ahmed, giving him at the same time to understand
that the Resident would consider himself bound in honour to afford the young
Sheikh a place of security as long as he might find it convenient to remain at
the Residency.
463. In reply to this message Sheikh Ahmed expressed his surprise
at the step taken by Sheikh Nasir, who, he assured me, had always b een
treated by him with the utmost delicacy and never had the remotest cause of
apprehension for his personal safety, that he could not however but feel
grateful for the kindness with which his relation had been received, and that
he should look .upon the Resident’s friendly attentions to Sheikh Nasir as the
light of a favour conferred on himself.
464. In the then state of affairs here, it was hoped that the Government of
Shirauz could not feel offended at the conduct which circumstances had
compelled the Resident to pursue on this occasion nor misconstrue a common
aot of hospitality into an officious interference with matters conneoted with
their authority, but Colonel Stannus’s past experience of the extraordinary
suspicions entertained by that Government, on occasions less liable to mis­
construction, was to render him uncertain of the light in which their affair
may be viewed.
465. These facts were reported by Lieutenant-Colonel Stannus to the
Government of Bombay. He also informed them that Sheikh Ahmed had
been con6rmod as Governor of Bushire by the Prince of Pars and bad been
given by him presents of the value of £11,400.
466. The views of the Government were expressed in their letter No. 112,
dated 26th January 1827 :—
In the peculiar state of Arab manners, the Governor in Council conceives, that you
could not refuse your protection to the fugitives. Every means not repugnant to the ideas
of the people of the country should, however, he adopted to relieve the British Government
from the embarrassment that may arise from protecting persons in opposition to the existing
Government, and the slightest attempt at intrigue or disturbance of the present order of
things should at once deprive them of our protection.
2. Sheikh Nassir and his uncle should be apprized of the condition in which our
protection can alone be continued to them.
8. The Governor in Coup oil sanctions the amount of presents made by you to the new
Governor of Bushire on the occasion of his being confirmed by the Persian Government in
that office.

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