"ملف رقم: E.7. قطر والاتفاقية الأنجلو تركية لعام ١٩١٣' [و‎‎٥‎٥] (٤٦٠/١٢٦)

! -s2@
The Agency,
Bahrein, the 11th September 1914
cxyi er^
The up mall ie later than I expected,so I have
had more time to consider your No.Cf-S02 regarding Matr.
It is my ignorance of Arabe and Arabic that makes me very
chary of expreasing an opinion.
V/ere a Brahui or Baluch Chief to behave as Abdullah has
done on the slightest provocation I should not look on
it as having any special significance. Petulance in one
of their outstanding characteristics,and it has the
desired effect on the tribe;moreover the Chief is a chief
by Divine Right. Abdullah,however,is not even the
eldest son,and there was no particular reason why he
should be made Chief. Even in Shaikh Jasim's time,Shaikh
Ahmad had,in some ways,more power than the Chief. His
sons are ambitious,unscrupulous and lawless. Abdullah is
afraid of them and not particularly keen on ^eing Chief
over such a troublesome lot. His private inclinations
would,! believe,be to invite us in to bolster him up and
make his pearl dealing business safe and profitable, iie
kno"s that any half measures on these lines would mean
opposition and probably assassination. Can we go the
whole way? Depott recalcitrant cousins,warn off Bin
Saud,place an Agent with a small guard in Qatr and for a
time at any rate,keep a Man-of-war handy.
I think Yusuf Kanoo underestimates the weight of
the Bin Saud element. He has frecpently told me that
Bin Saud could not raise^ thousand fighting men and that
a united atr could easily beat him off. He believes
that Bin Saud dislikes him personally. His ever ambitione
in the ^atr direction are a regular obsession, and I thini
we ought to discount all his information considerably.