"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎١‎١‎٨] (١٧٨٢/١٢٨٩)

British sup
port of the
Saiyid of
Masqat,
1853,
British pro
tection of
Bahrain, etc.
1859-61.
Reparation
for the Sur
outrage,
1865.
British policy
of non-inter
vention main
tained in
Trucial
Oman.
Attitude of
the Wahhabi
Amir towards
piracy.
Colonel
Felly's
jonrney to
JJiyadh, Feh-
ruary-March
1865.
Gulf; and it was noticed that after this incident Faisal's attitude to the
British Government became, for a time at least, more conciliatory. It
had been necessary before this, in 1846, to address a stern warning to the
Wahhabi Governor of Qatif, who had permitted himself to use threats of
encouraging- piracy.
Again in 1853, when 'Oman was menaced with invasion by the son of
the Wahhabi Amir, the Resident, by summoning the Shaikhs of Trueial
J Oman from Baraimi to the coast, where he was waiting to conclude with
them the Perpetual Treaty of Peace, by remonstrating with 'Abdullah on
his detention of the Shaikhs at Baraimi, by sending a vessel of war to
cruise along the coast, and by promising to assist the Sultan of 'Oman,
if need be, in the defence of his capital, averted the cession of Sohar to
the Wahhabis and enabled the Sultan to obtain peace on terms, far less
disadvantageous as to tribute, than might otherwise have been extorted
from him.
In 1859 Bahrain was again saved by British naval interposition from
a Wahhabi descent which might have had serious and permanent con
sequences. This action and a demand that the sons of the ex-Shaikh of
Bahrain should be removed from Dammam elicited bitter reproaches and
a denunciation of British policy from the Wahhabi ruler.
For the outrage committed at Sur in 1865 the British Government
undertook to obtain from the offenders the reparation due, which the
Sultan of 'Oman was himself too weak to claim with any hope of success.
It was only in Trucial 'Oman that the representatives of the British
Government continued to repeat—particularly in 1855, when the Na'im
suggested that help should be given them to expel the Wahhabis from
Baraimi that they could not interfere in the internal affairs of Arabia;
and even theie they assisted the cause of tribal independence by ignoring,
in all their political dealings, the very existence of the Wahhabi agent.
It is due to the Amir iaisal to mention that he never, so far as was
asceitained, attempted to reply to the opposition of the British authorities
by instigating piracy at sea; on the contrary, in 1855, he referred
appreciatively to the " understanding between us and the British Gov
ernment, of a hundred years' duration, for the security of traders and
travellers passing on the seas."
Mention has already been made of the remarkable journey to Riyadh
undertaken by Colonel Pelly, the British Political Resident at Bushehr,
in IbBo , hib piincipal object was to remove the animosity against Britain
which anti-slavery proceedings at sea and frustration of Wahhabi policy
upon the Arabian coast were believed to have excited in the Amir, and