'Collection of papers respecting the attitude of His Majesty's Government in regard to the Bagdad Railway and the Purchase of Land at Koweit (amended version)' [‎11r] (21/34)

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evident dissatisfaction, that so far it appears to be wholly in German hands. • A
favourite saying of his is that whatever Power holds the line from Bagdad to the sea,
that Power will undoubtedly hold all the Arabs, and that the Arabs cannot resist such
a Power.
Inclosure 5 in No. 11.
Major Knox to Major Cox.
Koweit, January 27, .1907.
I HAVE the honour to invite a reference to the correspondence ending with my
Confidential letter dated Koweit the 21st January, on the subject of the acquisition
of a landing-place at Shweikh Harbour.
2. To-day I obtained an interview with Sheikh Mubarak, and, after the usual
preliminary greetings and coffee, I asked him to let me know what were his wishes
as regards the land for which I had asked a Concession from him on the 20th instant.
3. The Sheikh began a long and evidently carefully considered reply. He began by
saying that Arab Chiefs, his neighbours—he specially named Bahrein and Muscat—had
large and flourishing properties, which if managed carefully and intelligently would
assure them large returns; whereas he bad very little revenue to draw on, merely, so he
said, his customs dues, which did not bring him in half enough to live on suitably.
I naturally did not allude to his Fao date gardens, which would have led him into a
dissertation on the Turks and their ways, and the lack of support he receives from the
Pritish Government. He pointed out that, as I knew, the duties that hospitality to
Arabs and the poor and guests imposed upon him were costly and, owing to his
increased prestige, continually increasing. He emphasized the fact that he had been
asked by the Germans to give them these lands that we now asked for, and that he had
refuse d them; that a Russian Consul had pressed him to allow him to rent a house or
grant a piece of land on which to build, and that he had steadily refused until, so he
said, the Russian got angry with him. He referred to his Agreement with the British
Government, and impressed upon me that, under that Agreement, he was debarred from
granting or leasing ground belonging to him to any foreigner.
4. He then said that he had received t ome assurance from his Excellency the late
Viceroy, Lord Curzon, when he visited Koweit, that he would endeavour to obtain
some allowance for him, but explained that later his Excellency gave up the reins of
office and nothing came of it. I did not consider myself justified in making any
comment on this assertion, and I imagine that the Sheikh must have alluded to the
incident when a sword of honour was presented to him, and he made a somewhat
ambiguous query asking what went with the sword. I would ask indulgence for the
vagueness of this last explanation, as I write from memory of papers seen by me in
the Bushire Confidential Record Office, and relating to his Excellency’s visit to
the Gulf.
5. The Sheikh proceeded to say that land was increasing in value, and that his
subjects had endeavoured to procure Concessions at both Shw^eikh and Kathama Point
in the hope that the railway would some day come and make the land valuable; that
he was anxious to assist the British Government in every way, but that he did not like
to name any price for the land; that he threw himself on the liberality of Government,
and merely asked that they w’ould give him something substantial to assist him in
meeting his expenditure, which was beginning to be too large for him to cope with.
He would prefer a yearly lease (quit-rent), but would not stand in the way of Govern
ment, if they attached great importance to an out-and-out purchase. This last
explanation was in reply to a question I threw in.
6. I he Sheikh gave me clearly to understand that what he was looking for was
much more in the nature of a subsidy than an actual lease of the ground in question.
He also made a personal appeal to me, remarking that he regarded me as a brother,
and that we had drunk coffee together for some years now, and that he looked to me
to show a tender regard for his interests. I replied that he might rely on my doing
the best I could in his interests compatible with my duty towards Government, and that
no one realized more than myself how impossible it was for my work to progress unless
1 worked in harmony with him. I trust that it will be clear that I do not note this
part of our interview in any wish to exalt the notion of my influence with the Sheikh. *
i have been long enough now with Arabs to rate such expressions at their proper value.
1 venture to think that it shows the absence of any pressure put on the Sheikh, and that
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