File 345/1908 Pt 2 'Mohammerah: situation. Sheikh's dispute with the Vali of Basra. decoration for Sheikh. renewed assurances to Sheikh.' [‎114r] (232/566)

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Lieutenant Wilson came up from Mobammerah the same evening with
Haji Reiss, and the latter arranged to see the Acting Vali on the following day,
May 6th and to inform me of the result. I had a long interview with Haji Reiss
on the evening of May 6th after he had seen Saad Bey. He took a very diplo
matic line with him and said that, if the Vali was all fire, he would be all water. I
thought the result of the interview, as he related it to me, was as satisfactory as
could be expected in the preliminary stages of peace making. Saad Bey after
wards summoned the Vali to the Telegraph office, and was in communication
with him yesterday afternoon. Haji Reiss is to lunch with the Acting Vali to
day to hear the result, and will see me later. His report will be too late for this
mail. Haji Reiss said one thing to the Acting Vali which I thoroughly endorse.
In fact I intended to use the same argument with the Vali myself if called upon
to discuss the matter with him. It was to the effect that, if the Turks had any
grievance against Chanan, who was living on Turkish territory, let them tell the
Sheikh that they refused to have him in the country, and the Sheikh would expel
him from his lands at Zein and put another person in his place, which would be
a punishment for Chanan, and the Turks would be rid of a knave. This is, l
think, a very sound argument, and we might work upon these lines.
I repeated the substance of my interview with Haji Reiss in my telegram No.
22. I drew his attention to the absolute necessity of getting the Sheikh to
modernise his views on the subject of border relations, and of aiding him to
realise the genuineness of Turkey’s wish for reform. The truth is the Turks
have hitherto played such a pitiable part here, that it is not strange the Arabs
should think no good can come from them. I said some arrangement would
have to be made and adhered to for the surrender of criminals who evaded justice.
He replied that the Turks could not keep them when they got them. There is
truth in that. Evasions from prison used to be frequent, and once, in the Maghil
case, I had Khuleyf brought up from Mohammerah and turned loose in a garden
and sent 15 zapties, my dragoman and the Tabour Abassi to catch him, and they
let him slip through their hands. I mentioned the attacks on Abul Khassik in
1908, and on Basrah, 1909, and the Sheikh’s pranks during Moharrem Bey’s gover«
norship, which, sometimes, almost partook of the character of a Florentine “ beffa ”
of the middle ages. Haji Reiss could not deny that the Sheikh was somewhat
given to wreak his vengeance on any particular Vali he disliked by stirring up
trouble in the Vilayet in order to discredit him. I pointed out what wretched
tactics these were besides being very unfair on the sufferers, and Haji Reiss
agreed and promised to offer better counsels. I understand the Sheikh is very
much in the hands of his advisers, and I believe Haji Reiss is one of the best of
them. For my own part, I rather distrust Mirza Hamza.
Matters are somewhat complicated by two letters which the Vali addressed
to the Persian Consul-General on April 26th, of which Haji Reiss gave me copies
in Turkish. I enclose a literal translation of them. From these it will be seen
that the Vali accuses the Sheikh of harbouring bad characters to the detriment
of the Vilayet, and this is, I think, strictly true. He states further that he will
use the force at his command to protect Ottoman territory against interference
from the Sheikh. Tuikish officials under the new regime seem to me half
intoxicated with liberty and dazed with the accession of power, and, like school
boys out for a holiday, they may make sad misuse of it. An impetuous man like
Nazif Bey requires a good deal of holding. He has his points, he is no liar and is
clean handed, but he is not a very experienced Governor, and is most undiplo
matic in his methods. In the second letter to the Persian Consul-General the
Vali demands the arrest of Muhammad Chanan. I do not understand his allu
sion to “ attacks on farms ” (bazi muqtelera tejavuz itmessi uzerine). As far
as w r e know Chanan prevented the Zapties from turning out certain refractory
“fellahs” from the land of a certain Mishri at Dowasir. He seems to have
supported them because they were fellow clansmen and he went rather far, when
the Tebour Agassi was sent to arrest him, Chanan, by saying that Nifhri’s agent
would be killed if the arrest was insisted on. I have heard nothing else specified
against him except the vague accusation that he is a brigand. Chanan, so Mr.
Wilson informs me, is the headman of an important tribe subject to Sheikh