'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part II. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎2647] (1164/1262)

'f V
" and the guttural shouts of the Arabs, the procession set off, helter- 3)
" skelter, for the town across the great open plain, surrounded by a crowd 33
" of horsemen, who galloped wildly ahead, hurled their spears or dis- 33
l( charged their carbines in the air, curvetted, pirouetted, and went 33
" through all the time-honoured evolutions of an Arab field-day. It 33
" was a strikingly picturesque scene ; the bright colours of the cavalcade, 33
" their flowing robes of orange and red and golden brown flung to the 33
" wind as they careered about on their spirited Arab steeds; the more 33
" sedate and compact bodies of camelry trotting with silent footfall; the 33
" moving crowd of spectators shuffling along on foot; well-fed townsmen 33
" in their best dresses; Arabs from the desert, lean and hungry in their 33
" ragged 'Abas; veiled women with dark indigo cloaks thrown over their ;>
" heads and long trailing skirts of gaudy cotton prints ; black-eyed and 33
" brown-skinned children in every stage of undress; and in the back- 39
" ground, behind the black tents of a large Bedouin encampment, the 33
" white walls and flat roofs of the town gay with bunting, and far
u away across the pale blue waters of the bay, girt with the yellow 33
" desert, the fleet lying at anchor, grey and grim, with the ' Hardinge , 33
u all in white, conspicuous in their midst.'" In this reception over 200
horsemen and 20 camel riders took part, besides about 4,000 footmen,
many of whom carried Martini-Henry rifles or carbines. The flag borne
was a red Arab banner with the motto a Trusting in God " (Tawakkulan
'ala Allah). The Viceroy drove through the town to the Shaikh's
residence on the sea front, where on his arrival a salute of 31 guns was fired.
An interview followed in an upper chamber which^is used by the Shaikh as
a reception room and which was ornamented, on this occasion, with colouied
portraits of the King and Queen of England and of Her late Majesty
Queen Victoria. After the younger sons of the Shaikh had been presented
to the Viceroy coffee was served. The Turkish flag, which had been
flying over the Shaikh's house on the previous day, does not appear to
have been hoisted on this occasion.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon Shaikh Mubarak paid a private visit
to the Viceroy on board the " Hardinge The Shaikh, on being invited
to speak, said that he had renounced his connection with the lurks and
had come under the British protectorate; he had further refused the
advances that had been made to him by the French and the E,ussia,ns ;
and he hoped therefore that he might receive a title, or a decoration and an
allowance. He dwelt at some length on the financial difficulties of his
position. He then requested that his terntory at Umm Qasr and
Bubiyan might be freed of the presence of the lurks who, he said, had
seized it bv stealth. To these remarks of the Shaikh Lord Curzon lejomed
that he was gl«l to have learnt what the Shaikh had in his mind, and
that he would fully consider his requests, though he could not piomise
that any of them would be granted. The case of the Shaikh s Basrah
atent who had been imprisoned by the Turkish Government for treason,
was then mentioned ; and the Shaikh was told that the Brit sh Ambassa-
dor was trying to secure a mitigation of the^ sentence passe upon him.
Finally His Excellency reiterated the warmngs which had already been
sVioi'L-h through the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Gulf, that he
should abstain from interference in the affairs of Central Arabia; the
Shaikh promised to be guided by his advice m this respect, and withdrew
after repeatedly thanking the Viceroy for his visit to Kuwait and for the
Private inter
view of the
Shaikh with
the Yiceroji