File 345/1908 Pt 2 'Mohammerah: situation. Sheikh's dispute with the Vali of Basra. decoration for Sheikh. renewed assurances to Sheikh.' [‎127v] (259/566)

the Shaikh flies, etc. Kuwait which formerly scarcely ever figured in Arabic
newspapers now finds mention under the heading of Basrah News in the Cairo
papers over the signature of the Basrah correspondent. ^
5. As bearing on this subject it may be of interest to note here that the items
in my diary were obtained from a local source but curiously enough were con
firmed almost exactly in conversation with M. Toukholka, Russian Consul at
Basrah, during his few hours’ visit to Kuwait. He said to me that he was much
interested in Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. politics, and having but lately arrived in Basrah, where
he constantly heard the position of Kuwait discussed, he was naturally desirous
of seeing the place and its ruler, to use his own words “ he had no instructions
to pursue any active policy at Basrah for the place did not really affect Russia, and
consequently he had very little to do officially. Thus he was afforded the oppor
tunity of seeing our position in regard to Kuwait, the Baghdad Railway,
Muhammerah and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. generally from the point of view of an inter
ested on-looker.” He said he had heard in Basrah that Mubarak used to fly
a flag which was exactly similar to the Turkish with the exception that the
Kuwait flag carried three white stars but that within the last two years Mubarak
at the request of the Wali had reverted to one star! He informed me that his own
introduciion from the Wali to Mubarak bore the superscription of “ Kaimmakam
of Kuwait,” and that the Wali had frequently mentioned the position of Kuwait
in conversation; he had said that the policy of the new Turkey was to maintain
the “status quo,” which, so far as Kuwait was concerned, he was convinced the
Turks regarded as implying distinct subjection to them, and that to prevent the
possibility of Kuwait vanishing beyond their hold, as they considered had already
happened in the cases of Maskat and Bahrain owing to their own negligence, they
would probably make some serious effort to establish in Kuwait an indubitable
visible sign of their predominance. He thought we should have a very difficult
question to solve more specially as the new Turkish Government was a vastly
different affair to the one to which the Powers had become accustomed under
the regime of Abdul Hamid. His own experience in Macedonia and Albania less
than six months ago before his appointment to Basrah had shown him the differ
ence very plainly.
He said that the Wali at Basrah was undoubtedly working for his own coun»
try’s good and that he was supported whole-heartedly by Nazim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. . The
latter though styled Wali of Baghdad had been sent out by the Turkish Govern
ment with a promise of generous support and had been given a free hand first
to re-organize thoroughly the Vlth Army Corps, and, when that object had been
achieved and an effective weapon been thereby supplied, to consolidate Turkish
power in the southern vilayets and amongst the Arab s.
M. Toukholka did not appear to me to be trying to obtain information
seriously, for though he asked some inconvenient questions as to how we regard
ed Mubarak officially, he hardly waited for a reply and seem more intent on dis
playing his own knowledge of and interest in the situation than in deliberately
“pumping” me. He gave me the impression of an energetic man really
anxious to see things by travelling about himself and inclined to be garrulous as
to his own experiences.
I have reported M. Toukholka’s conversation in some detail above in order
to show that in Basrah at least the status of Kuwait is discussed fairly freely
among officials.
6. Shaikh Mubarak himself talks tome quite openly of the Wali and his
various schemes and makes no secret of his own opinion that the Wali is endea
vouring to bring about some way of introducing Turkish influence into Kuwait.
He expresses himself as being averse to any such influence but at the same
time compelled to meet the Wali amicably and to do nothing likely to arouse
his animosity for fear of reprisals on his properties on the Shatt-el-Arab.
That the Shaikh desires absolute independence is certain, but he has suffi
cient acumen to see that his property on the river furnishes Turkey with a valu
able hostage from himself, that we for our own reasons do not desire the growth