"دليل الخليج. الجزء الأول. المواد التاريخية والسياسية. ملخص حول شؤون نجد، ١٨٠٤-١٩٠٤" [‎٢‎٣] (٦٨/٣١)

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" Colonel Pelly may be expected to return from his leave by the in-coming Mail, and I
would propose to send him to Maskat in the first instance, before he proceeds to Bushire, with
such instructions as the Governor General may approve..
" With this view these proceedings should be at once reported to the Governor General,
and early instructions should be solicited."
88. In reply to the letter from tlie Bombay Government, submitting the
Letter fo.m the offiei »tin s Under Secretly, foregoing Minute, the Government of
Foreign Department, No. 940, dated the 8th Nov India Communicated On the 8tll NoVCm-
ember 1865. ^305 following telegraphic instruc
tions from Sir Charles "Wood :— <{ A telegram has been sent to the Senior
Naval Officer at Bombay to comply with any request of yours. It may be
advisable to beg the Senior Officer at Bombay to proceed to the Coast of Arabia,
and in concert with the British Resident to take such measures instrumental
they may think likely to promote an arrangement between the Wahabi Chief
and the Imaum. He is not, however, to undertake anything on land." In
communicating these instructions, the Government of India desired that
Colonel Pelly should impress on the Sultan of Maskat the necessity of vigorous
action on his own part, and discourage any hope that the British Government
would fight his battles for him.
XXV--British Operations against the Wahabis, 1865—1866.
89. Colonel Pelly having meanwhile returned from Europe, he was furnish
ed with the instructions received from the Government of India on the 14th
November 1865 (the date of their receipt) and proceeded in the Steamer Bere
nice to the Persian Gulf, for the purpose of enquiring into the actual position
of affairs in Oman so as better to enable him to act on the arrival of a man-of-
war at Maskat. On the 28th November he met the Sultan atBarka, and found
that he was fully alive to the necessity of vindicating his authority atSur, and
taking measures for the defence of this inland frontier, but that he was ill-prepared
to do so from the weakness of his material resources. His great immediate want
was money. Colonel Pelly strongly recommended that a loan of two lacs, at
5 per cent., should be granted to the Sultan, for which His Highness had offered
the customs of the port of Gwadur as security. He also recommended that two
18-pounder guns with ammunition should be supplied to aid the Sultan in his
defensive operations. The Government of India, to whom these recommend-
Mr. Secretary Muir's letter No. 44, dated the 17th ationS Were Submitted, approved the
January 1866. grant of the guns and ammunition, but
observed that no sufficient reason had been adduced for the loan of the two
lacs.
90. Meanwhile Amir Eeysal had died (1865) and was succeeded by his
son Abdullah. This news however reached our Political Officers in the Gulf in
January 1866.
91. Before Colonel Pelly's arrival at Maskat the officer in charge of the
Besidency in the Persian Gulf, forwarded a communication purporting from the
Wahabi Amir Eeysal in reply to the representions which had been made to
him regarding the mal-treatment of British subjects at Sur. The Amir
while stating that he had ordered the release of the British subjects who had been
taken prisoners by his lieutenant in the attack on Sur, and the restoration of
their plundered property, was silent about making any reparation for the injury
already done, and in regard to compensation for the man who had been killed
on the occasion.
92. The Amir defended the proceedings of his lieutenant on the ground
that there existed between the Wahabi Power and the British Government an
Agreement originally effected in the time of the late Saud, and again ratified
in the time of the present Ruler.
93. On this point the Assistant Resident at Bushire was requested by
telegraph, to state whether there was any ground for the assertion of the
Wahabi Chief—that any such specific or formal engagement existed between
him and the British Government.