'Memorandum respecting British interests in the Persian Gulf' [‎34r] (33/126)

41
Sir C. Ford,
No. 153,
April 23, 1H93.
Aitchison’s
Treaties, Vol. 10.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ,
September 17,
1S79.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .
Memorandum,
June 30, 1888.
valid contracts, and punishing mercantile crime
for the rest, leave all to private enterprise, and
leave trade free as the tide to flow in and out. I
think that thus only can we practically test the
commercial capabilities of the Gulf.”
(d.) ElKatr, or Guttur.
The El Katr peninsula lies south of Ujair,
in the district of El Katif. Ujair is the most
southerly point to which, with the important
exception of Koweit, II is Majesty’s Government
have recognized continuous Turkish influence.
On the other hand, it is noith of El Odeid, to
which, in 1878, the Sheikh of Abu Dthabi was
allowed to assert his rights of possession, and
which now forms the western limit of the
territories of the Trucial Chiefs.
The greater part of the country between El
Katif and El Odeid is sparsely inhabited by
Bedouin tribes who find pasturage there for their
flocks. On the coast are fishing villages, such
as Ujair, Zobara, Khor Hassan, El Bidaa and
Wakra, the most considerable being El Bidaa.
The question of sovereignty over El Katr has
never been definitely decided, and to some extent
this region has been regarded as debateable land,
between Oman on the one side, and the Wahabee
Power on the other. At one time the Chief of
Abu Dthabi is said to have exercised authority
on the actual peninsula. Later the Uttobees,
having settled there and at Bahrein, became
paramount. These in turn had to pay religious
tithe to the Wahabee Ameer, who established a
Governor of his own at El Bidaa; and threatened
to occupy the Bahrein Islands in 1851. This
was prevented by the appearance on the scene of
British vessels of war, and an arrangement was
come to by which the town of El Bidaa was
restored to the Bahrein Chief.
There was considerable correspondence in 1872
about a Turkish expedition to Nejd. As a result
the Turks remained established in the El Hasa
district, and at El Katif on the coast, while a
military post was created at El Bidaa, and has
been maintained there ever since.
A question was raised at this time as to certain
rights claimed by the Sheikh of Bahrein over the
mainland coast, and in regard to the status of
El Odeid.
The British Resident, Colonel Felly, was of
[1098] M