Page 99 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

RELATIONS WITH QATAR 37
In the meantime Turkey occupied Qatar several times in 1872, and
on many occasions warned the British Government against inter­
ference in the affairs of the Qatar coast, which was considered by her
as a Turkish possession. These warnings were usually ignored by the
British Government.1 However, on 22 September 1883, the British
Government told the Turkish Ambassador in London, ‘in unequivocal
terms’, that
they were unable to accept the views of the Porte, and that they were not
prepared to waive the rights which they have exercised at intervals during a
long period of years of dealing directly with the Arab chiefs of the Qatar
coast, when necessary, in order to preserve the peace of the seas or to obtain
redress for outrages on British subjects or persons entitled to British protec­
tion.2
The British relations with Qatar continued during this period ‘on
the same unsatisfactory footing', and the Turkish influence in Qatar
remained unchanged until after 1883.3
In a note delivered by the Turkish Ambassador in London on 15
April 1893 to Lord Rosebery, Qatar was referred to as ‘a Turkish sub-
governorship’ and a ‘dependency of Najd’.4 In addition, the Shaikh of
Bahrain also put forward a claim in 1873 to sovereignty over Zubarah
village in the Peninsula of Qatar. But the Government of India took
the view that the Shaikh of Bahrain ‘had no clear and important rights
in Qatar and that he should be restrained, so far as possible, from
raising complications on the mainland’. The Shaikh, however, al­
though expressing his willingness to obey the advice of the British
Government, did not actually relinquish his claim, which remained
unsettled.5
In 1903, the Shaikh of Qatar was anxious to know from the British
Government whether his application for British protection over his
country would be met favourably. It was admitted by the British
authorities that an agreement with the Shaikh of Qatar would be
advantageous in that it would
increase the weight of British opinion in any international question that
might arise concerning the use of the adjacent pearl banks, but it was held
expedient to defer a final decision until tension at the moment prevailing
between Britain and Turkey should have subsided.®
In the light of the above policy an understanding was reached with
the Government of Constantinople that the status quo in Qatar should
be respected by both the British and the Turkish Governments.7
* Lorimer, pp. 802-9.
- Ibid., pp. 811-12; Saldanha, A Precis of Turkish Expansion, op. cit., pp. 100-4.
3 Lorimer, p. 827. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., pp. 815-16.
* Ibid., pp. 828-30; Saldanha, Precis of Katar, op. cit.
7 Lorimer, pp. 830-1; Saldanha, Precis, op. cit.