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File 1855/1904 Pt 10 'Koweit:- Relations with Turkey. Sheikh's properties at Fao and Fadaghia' [‎171r] (341/398)

The record is made up of 199 folios. It was created in 12 Jan 1908-18 Sep 1912. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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•3
to me extremely doubtful whether the embankment was ever erected before last
autumn and Abdur Rahim’s statement is valuable as showing that Sheikh
Mobarak has not steadily been repairing the embankment three or four times
per annum for the last fourteen years. The embankment stretching from Ahmed-
bin-Rizq s house to the Fort creek which does protect a date garden is sound
and in good repair and no one ever attempted to maintain that the Turkish
soldiers touched it.
cu -i u 4 \ 7 u e ‘ n , s P ect '. on the g round also disproves another wild statement of
Sheikh Mobarak s, mz., that if the Fort garrison fired northwards they would be
tiring into the Telegraph buildings and inhabited villages. The Fort fire is
masked on the west and on the west only. No rifle bullet could carry to culti
vated or inhabited ground either north, east, or south. Within rifle range there
18 ju"? e3 m e P t drear y. swamp land from which, however, the river is receding
and which will be potentially valuable for date cultivation purposes after no' very
great lapse of time. ■'
t ‘l, 1 was just getting up to leave when the Yusbashi from the Fort came
up to Ahmed-bm-Rizq s house and we sat and talked through an interpreter for
a quarter of an hour. By the courtesy of this gentleman, I was permitted to
proceed along the bund of Ahmed-bin-Rizq to the Fort creek though he would
not give me permission to enter the Fort which indeed I had not asked for. He
explained to me what the quarrel had been about and said that, while they did
not object to the actual enclosure, if it was thought advisable to enclose this
piece merely as an additional precaution against flood water, they could not
permit its cultivation in any shape or form. We returned to the R. I M S
Lawrence that evening without mishap or difficulty of any kind.
16. I had heard from Mr. Lobo, the clerk in charge of the Telegraph
station at Fao, tnat the Kaim-mokam of Fao had been making anxious enquiries
about me and my movements and I thought jt best to proceed at once in the
morning and give a full and frank explanation to him of my presence there.
The Kaim-mokam s house is next to the Telegraph quarters and I sent Moolla
Abdulla over to say that I should be very glad to see him and give an explana
tion of my presence there if he would receive me. A courteous reply was sent
and 1 proceeded attended by Moolla Abdulla and one chuprassi. My reception
was all that could be desired and I explained to the Kaim-mokam that Sheikh
Mobarak s complaints were continual and I wished to try and get at the facts as
f u f P°® Slble > tbat I h a d ™ authority of any kind and pretended to none, that
riis excellency the Wah had said that he saw no objection to my visiting the
spot on my return to Koweit. The Kaim-mokam, Sharif Bey, was so bu«y
explaining the Turkish view of the two cases Fao—Ma’amir and the Fao Fort
and the broken embankment that I may be permitted to doubt whether he paid
much attention to the explanation I afforded him. He returned my visit
immediately at the Telegraph quarters and we parted on excellent terms.
cu U P’ tbe P 03 ' 1 * 011 ’ s briefly thus. It is quite a question whether
bheikh Mobarak has or has not committed a serious aggression involving valu
able property to the north of his estates. In this matter we have no possible
!^ ns 1 c V ct ‘ on or P retext f° r interference and the matter appears one entirely for the
Turkish courts to settle.
18- To the south, no real damage has been done at all. Sheikh Mobarak
has erected a bund round what is at present worthless marsh land and the
lurkish soldiers have destroyed it and for a very good reason too.
dfbe question of right is at best obscure and it is certainly possible to argue
that by Turkish law all that land belongs to the Ottoman Government which
permits or refuses to permit reclamation, as it thinks fit. From the Sheikh’s
letters one would imagine that his estates were gradually passing over into the
hands of the Turks. This is not so, it is a question of fresh acquisitions which
the I urks refuse to permit him to acquire. In many directions, notably a strip
of land to the noith of the Telegraph buildings and the gardens to the north
of Ahmed bin-Rizq’s house they appear to have been very generous to him and
to have foregone reclamation taxes which they might, in all lawfulness have
claimed. Owing to the constant silting up of the river at the mouth, the Fao

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The papers concern relations between Shaikh Mubarak [Mubārak bin Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ], Ruler of Koweit [Kuwait] and the Government of Turkey [the Ottoman Empire]; particularly in regard to the purchase by the Shaikh of date gardens at Fao [Al Fāw] on the Shatt-al-Arab, and property at Fadaghia, near Fao, both of which were in Turkish territory. In both cases, the Turkish authorities insisted that the Shaikh should first register himself as an Ottoman subject before they would allow the legal formalities of ownership to be completed.

The principal correspondents are the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Zachariah Cox); the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Kuwait (Major Stuart George Knox; from 1909 Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear); the British Consul at Basrah (also referred to as Bussorah) [Basra] (Francis Edward Crow); the British Ambassador at Constantinople (Sir Gerald Augustus Lowther); Shaikh Mubarak; and senior officials of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the Government of India, and the Foreign Office.

The papers cover: papers concerning the Fao property, including the Shaikh's appeals for a committee of inquiry and arbitration over the matter, January 1908 - July 1909 (folios 115-199); papers concerning the Fadaghia property, February 1909 - December 1910 (folios 6-114); Foreign Office paper containing a memorandum communicated to the Turkish Ambassador concerning the Bagdad railway question and other matters, July 1911 (folios 4-5); and correspondence concerning a false report in a Turkish newspaper that an allowance had been granted by the Turkish Government to Shaikh Mubarak, May-July 1912 (folios 2-3).

The French language content of the papers is confined to three folios of newspaper extracts (folios 133-135).

The date range gives the covering dates of all the documents contained in the papers; the covering dates of the Secret Department minute papers that enclose them, as given on folio 1, are 1908-1912.

Extent and format
199 folios
Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 1855/1904 Pt 10 'Koweit:- Relations with Turkey. Sheikh's properties at Fao and Fadaghia' [‎171r] (341/398), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/51/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100037401202.0x000097> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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