Page 50 - The Persian Gulf Historical Summaries (1907-1953) Vol IV_Neat

■'V*

41
under existing circumstances, the,conclusion of
n Treaty ns proposed would he inopportune.
It was decided that the question should ho
submitted to the Committee of Imperial Defence,
who do not appear to have recorded any definite
opinion.
In a Minute da tod the 5th February, 1905,
Lord Lnnsdowno wrote as follows:—
• "I feel strongly that the time has come when
all these questions should be. considered, not as
we have been in the habit of considering them—
piecemeal and as they arise—but as parts of a
Persian Gulf policy, the principles of which
should bo carefully laid down for our guidance.’*

(e.) The Wuhubees.
To appreciate the present political conditions
and recent history of Arabia it is necessary to go
hack to the year 1712, which marks the riso of
the remarkable Wahabcc movement, which was
at the bottom of all the political changes that
the peninsula has seen since that time.
Colonel Polly alluded to the subject in the
following terms:—
“ It is this Nejd power, occupying the wide
centre of Adnan Arabia, and composed of
nomadic or only partially stationary Arab tribes,
some now in revolt and some now used for
quelling revolt, that threatens or dominates all
round the shore-lino from the back of the
Euphrates and Shat-el-Arab, down along the
Pirate. Coast, and thence round Cape Musandim,
along Muscat, Oman, to Itas-el-llad, on the Aden
line.
“It was a Kazee or Mullah of Bussorah,
named Waliab, who (or whose son), permeating
these tribes with the mctamoruhic agency of a
religious idea, fused them into an aggressive
mass, which, cropping out along the shore-lines
of Muscat and the western coast of the Persian
Gulf, compelled all these subdued tribes into
plunder and piracy, lienee the once notorious
appealanco of the maritime Arabs as pirates;
hence our expeditions to the west coast of the
Gulf; and hence the Rns-el-KUeimahs and Beni-
bu-Alis blending with our colours. An Arab
Sheikh endeavoured to explain to me the nature
of this unenduring Wahabee power by likening
it to the agency of Lord Clive in conquering