File 1855/1904 Pt 10 'Koweit:- Relations with Turkey. Sheikh's properties at Fao and Fadaghia' [‎103v] (206/398)

Sheikh has apparently succeeded in securing) of the orders and remarks passed
on this petition, it appears that the Wali, Mahrum Effendi, forwarded the
petition for remarks to the subordinate concerned, who replied on the same date
that a telegram from the Ministry of the Interior at Constantinople prohibited
the transfer pending further orders, to which the Wali appended the equivalent
of our routine official remark ‘ Noted
Sheikh Mubarak’s explanation of this telegram is that Mahrum Effendi
was inimical to him and hearing of his intended purchase of the Eadhagiya
property telegraphed to Constantinople that the purchase was being made by
Mubarak with British gold, and it was upon this falsehood that the Ministry of
the Interior telegraphed the order to delay the completion of the sale. This
delay was effected at Basrah by a refusal to register the land-transfer unless
Sheikh Mubarak took out a Nationality certificate labelling him as a Turkish
subject. The means of salvation were communicated to Abdul Wahab al-Kirtas,
but he on behalf of Sheikh Mubarak at once said that such a course was
unprecedented in the case of any well-known merchant or large landowner in
Basrah and much less to be contemplated in the case of an influential Sheikh of
Mubarak’s position who moreover held many other acres on the Shatt-el-Arab
and had never hitherto been requested to conform to a regulation which was
enforced but seldom and then only in the case of petty nobodies.
5. Abdul Wahab al-Kirtas continued trying at intervals to effect the
transfer and Sayid Arif Bey, the Arab who succeeded Mahrum Effendi as Wali
in May 1909, endeavoured to help him by getting the earlier order cancelled at
Constantinople. Nothing however resulted, and Arif Bey was in turn succeeded
in October 1909 by Suliman Nathif Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the present Wali. Abdul Wahab
addressed himself to the newcomer at the first opportunity and was told at once
and very plainly that no transfer would be made until Mubarak had duly
registered himself as an Ottoman subject.
6. Nothing further has happened and now, a year after Sheikh Mubarak
took possession of the property, the price has been paid up in full, Mubarak
pays the taxes, but the property still stands in the name of the az-Zuhair family
and so far as the Turkish authorities and Courts are concerned is still their
property.
7. Ahmad Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. az-Zuhair, who is the head of the family and represents
Basrah in the new Turkish Parliament, promised his good offices in Constanti
nople, but from his efforts, if indeed any were made, nothing has hitherto
resulted, and as Sheikh Mubarak pointed out “he has received his money, why
should he trouble further about the purchaser and the property.”
8. Sheikh Mubarak now feels that he can do no more to settle the matter
himself, that there is no hope of changing the present Wali’s (Suliman Nathif
Pasha’s) attitude, and therefore requests that His Majesty’s Ambassador in
Constantinople may he urged to take up the cudgels for him to obtain either a
rescission of the previous orders or a definite exemption from the necessity for
registration either of his property or his person as Turkish.
9. The above gives the story of the Sheikh’s difficulties from his point of
view and much of the ground has already been covered in Mr. Consul Crow’s two
despatches to Sir Gerald Lowther, dated the 12th Eebruary and 12th July 1909,
though from a different aspect.
10. Erom the previous correspondence on the subject it will be apparent
that, in spite of the Sheikh’s local efforts, Mr. Consul Crow’s endeavours, and
the late Wali Arif Bey’s assistance, the demand for Turkish registration still
continues. The question is a most important one as affecting the whole status
of Koweit and one which would appear now to be capable of solution only in
Constantinople or London. The Sheikh informed me that only one Koweiti
has so far taken out a Turkish certificate of nationality, Hamid al-Khalid, / I
whose case was reported in my predecessor’s letter No. 48 of the 27th January Mh] I
1909. The Padhagiya property sale-deeds stand in the Sheikh’s own name, but 1
he informed me that the property known as Mutawiya, which he purchased
from Sheikh Sadun of the Muniifich, stands in the names of Hamid-al-Khalid
and the Sheikh’s sons, Jabir, Salim and Hamed bin Mobarak. The transfer of
this Mutawiya property was duly registered in the Tapu Office records, no