'Koweit: A Report' [‎11v] (27/140)

Rashid's Government is understood to have been both popular
and just; while he showed great diplomatic ability in the manner
in which he humoured the vanity of Turkey by professing
himself the vassal of the Porte. By this purely nominal act of
obeisance he secured immunity from interference from El Hasa.
He presented one of the most striking personalities of the east.
In spite of futile efforts on the part of the old reigning family to
throw off the yoke of Ibn Rashid, he continued to rule in Nejd
with practically undisputed authority, until his death in 1897,
He was succeeded by his nephew, Abdul Aziz ibn Rashid.
To resume the thread of events immediately connected
with Koweit, an appeal had also been made by the sons of
the murdered Sheikh of Koweit to a maternal uncle, one
Sheikh Yusuf bin Ibrahim* of Dura on the Shatt«el-Arab, as
well as to the ruler of Nejd. Towards the end of 1897, Y'usuf
made preparations to attack Kovveit in alliance with Sheikh
Jasim bin 1 hani.f of El Katr. At the same time («.<«?., in
December 1897) a Turkish force was reported as concentrating
in the neighbourhood of Basrah, and the Turkish corvette Zohaf
proceeded to El Katr, with the Nakib of Basrah on board.
Whether this official exerted his influence with Sheikh Jasim, to
dissuade him from taking serious action or not, is not very clear,
but nothing of importance appears to have occurred.
Meanwhile, in July 1897, Saood, second son of the late
Sheikh of Koweit, appealed to the British Consul at Basrah for
British protection. The Foreign Office at home, however, did
not consider any interference on our part to be desirable unless
British interests, or the peace of the Gulf, were endangered. In
November 1897, H.M S. Pigeon visited Koweit and report
ed that Mubarak was most friendly and was desirous of British
protection. Both factions thus showed themselves anxious for
our protection, and both cordially hated the Turk.
* Mubarak’s brother married Yusuf’s sister, but owing to family quarrels
Yusuf had been ejected from Koweit, and was not permitted to trade there.
t Curzon describes Jasim bin Thani as ‘'a mischievous and disorderly
character ; by the British Govern ;;ent he is regarded as one of the independent
maritime chieftains pledged to preserve the maritime peace of the Gulf, and pos
sessing a claim upon oar support if he does so, and upon our retribution if he does
not—a view whico reVs upon a definite agreement not to commit any breach of
the martrime peace, which was signed by his predecessor, independently of the
six Trucial Chiefs, in 1868. In 1871, however, thinking to escape this obligation
Sheikh Jasim placed himself under Turkish protection and adopted the Turkish
flag. The Ottoman Government gladly appointed him Kaimakam, or Deputy
Governor, and placed a Turkish guard of 250 regulars, a coal depot and a steam
launch at El Bida, the principal port of the Katr coast. Turkish claims of
sovereignty over the El Katr Cape are not admitted by the British Government.
Sheikh Jasim is quite ready to coquet with any power that will forward his
ambitions. His son having been killed in one of his encounters with the tribe of
Abu Dhabi, he appealed for aid to the Turks-when he met with no response from
his patrons, he invoked the a sistance of Ibn Rashid, of Nejd, an alliance for
which, had it been granted, he would have had to payjthe price of a future tributed.