Page 89 - Arabian Studies (II)

The Powers and Mineral Concessions in the IdrTsTImamate of ‘A sir 79

demanded that ‘the Farasan Islands upon the coast of A1 Asir be
occupied by Italy’ on the grounds that Italy was a Muslim power
bordering the Red Sea. The Anglo-IdrTsf treaty of 1917, however,
effectively prevented an Italian occupation of the islands which
‘would [have] gravely prejudice[d] the political and strategic
interests of Great Britain in both the Red Sea and on the Arabian
mainland. Italy is already in possession of the Dahlak Archipelago
and the port of Massowah on the African coast facing the Idrisi’s
dominions, and if she held the Farsan group as well, she would
command, at this point, the Red Sea route to India; while, as regards
the mainland, she would use the Farsan Islands (as she intends, no
doubt, to use the Dodekannesc in the case of Anatolia) as a base for
commercial and political penetration. Both phases would violently
disturb the already precarious equilibrium of the Arabian Peninsula,
and would embarrass the Arabian policy of His Majesty’s Govern­
ment .... The exclusion of the Italians from the Farsan Islands is
thus an important British interest and the supplementary agreement
with the Idrisi has placed the means of defending this interest in our
hands’.5
Profiting by the Italo-Turkish war, the IdrTsT had previously seized
Farasan in March 1912, although he lost it again in October 1913.
The Germans who had sought permission to establish a coaling depot
there in 1901 began to show a renewed interest in the islands and
applied for a concession which the Ottomans refused on the grounds
that they preferred to grant it to a local Arab.6 In fact, Yusuf Assim,
a coffee and sugar merchant of Constantinople who traded mainly
with Hedjaz and Yemen7 was granted a concession by the Turkish
government for the exploitation of oil on Farasan.8 In 1910 William
Habakkuk, a mining engineer of Constantinople, began negotiating
with Assim for the purchase and transfer of the permis de recherche.
Assim, having been unable to begin prospecting due to the disturbed
state of the region, applied for and obtained an extension of the
validity of the permis and authorisation to sell it.
Habakkuk was negotiating on behalf of the Eastern Petroleum
Company, but the transfer was to be made in the name of George
Rogers, director of the company. Assim agreed to accept £3000 in
cash, payable as soon as the official transfer was effected: he would
also receive a certain number of shares in the company which was to
be formed to work the Farasan oilfields. In 1912 the Eastern
Petroleum Company decided, before coming to a final settlement, to
get expert advice on the value of the oil deposits and commissioned a
geologist, Professor Wade, to visit the oilfields. His report was
enthusiastic, ‘I think indications foreshadow success from a com-