File 345/1908 Pt 2 'Mohammerah: situation. Sheikh's dispute with the Vali of Basra. decoration for Sheikh. renewed assurances to Sheikh.' [‎124v] (253/566)

f
\6
that as long as he remains in Basrah there will be no guarantee of a recurrence
of troubles such as have occurred recently, unless the Turkish authorities both
in Basrah and Constantinople are given plain intimation that His Majesty’s
Government are supporting him and will not tolerate aggression on Mohammerah
Mr Crow has given Haji Rais plainly to understand that he is unable to
intervene in Basrah affairs, where the Wali is acting ostensibly in conformity with
judicial administrative rules, and the Wali has not less plainly informed Mr Crow
that he will not tolerate his intervention in Mohammerah and Koweit affairs.
It is important that it should be fully understood that the Sheikh has every
thing to lose and nothing to crain by gratuitously opposing the Wali of Basrah
and no one realises this better than he does. The value of the personal property
which he inherited from his father on the Turkish bank of the river is probably
nnt less than £ million pounds, and it is not reasonable to suppose that as long
as the Wali treats him with tolerable consideration he wi l court difficulties
in connection with his property, or jeopardise the peace and prosperity of his
tribal tenants by lightly incurring the hostility of the Basrah authorities.
In the case of the Wali, the position is quite different. He may have an
easier task when he is on gool terms with the Sheikh, but he has the support of
his Government when he is not. He is here to-day and gone to-morrow and has
no personal stake or local interest, and for the rest is imbued with the chronic
Turkish idea that the Sheikhs of Mohammerah and Koweit are the chief
obstacles to the realisation of Turkish ambition to reduce the Arab population
of Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , the condition of serfs destitute of any hereditary right to the
land which they occupy.
I should add, finally, that I showed His Majesty’s Consul at Basrah the
draft of the letter’to which this precis is appended, and asked him whether he
had any information which would tend ^ to refute or throw doubt upon the
genuineness of the Sheikh’s replies to various allegations made^ by the 1 urks.
He replied that he was not now, and never had been in a position to sift the
truth of the allegations made by the Turks, that the latter were invariably
untruthful, and that, situated as he was in Basrah, he had no opportunities for
applying an independent test to the accounts given him by the Turks of the
recent troubles or of others He added that should His Majesty’s Embassy
ask him to submit evidence in support of the Wali’s allegations or of his own
statements, he would suggest that the Turkish Government were in a better
position than he to furnish such controversial material.
I should add that Mr. Crow’s dragoman is a Turk, and obtains his informa
tion from Turkish sources, and that circumstances usually seem to preclude Mr.
Crow from obtaining the views of Arabs on current issues, even if he desired to
know them.
A. T. WILSON, Lieutenant, l.A. }
Copy forwarded to His Majesty’s Acting Consul at Mohammerah with
the compliments of the undersigned.
With reference to my telegram No. 37, of the 9th instant, I have the
honour to transmit a translation of the Sheikh of Mohammerah’s reply, which
Haji Rais handed to the Wali on Sunday morning, June 5th. Haji Rais
territory.
Acting Consul.
No. 60, dated Basrah, the 1 ith June 1910.
F. E. CROW.
Basrah ;
June yth, 1910.
No. 35.
Sir,