ملف ٢٢٩٧/ ١٩١٩ "تقارير شهرية للمقيمية البريطانية في الخليج الفارسي. ١٩١٢-١٩٢٠." [ظ‎‎٣‎٦‎٤] (١٠٤٤/٧٣٣)

report the advent of bad characters to the Political Agent. It remains to be seen
how much these assurances are worth.
480. The inner Gas Buoy was laid down by H. M. S. “Sphinx” on 17th May
1913, and on the 20 th the Mail steamer was able to leave the harbour after dark.
Before the fixing of the Gas Buoys, it was always necessary for steamers to leave an
hour before sunset or wait till the next morning.
481. It is reported that Messrs. Abdulla and Muhammad Gasaibi Nejdi, mer
chants, who are active partisans of Bin Baud, have borrowed a lakh of rupees from
four Hindu firms, ostensibly for trade purposes. The Gasaibis always trade with
Hasa, but their dealings have increased lately, and some say that they are helping
Bin Saud with a view to obtaining the Customs farm at Ojair and Katif. There
is also a rumour that the firm is rather shaky financially.
482. Pearling .—It appears that many divers were trying to obtain the same
rate of advances that they were receiving of late years on the ground that they were
reckoning on them and living at a rate to which they had got accustomed. With a
view to settling this matter, Sagar bin Shahin al Jalahimah approached Shaikh
Isa with a view to fixing a moderate scale of advances to be given to divers in view
of the low pearl market. Shaikh Isa declined to interfere in the matter, observing
that in either case he had nothing to gain and that the Nakhudas had not consulted
him when they gave the very high advances in the last two or three years: consequent
ly the matter was for them to deal with. The Nakhudas decided among them
selves to curtail the advances, and that, should any diver refuse to work with them,
the latter should be made to refund the outstanding liabilities.
483. The Pearl fleet left for the banks at the end of the fir^t week in May, the
majority starting on the 9th. On 30th May a strong shamal having broken, most
of the boats, however, returned to Bahrain. Two of them sank—one near Buhagul
and the ether near Eshtheyya. The former was a total wreck with a loss of two
lives.
Kuwait.
From 1st to 31st May.
[Furnished by Captain W. H. I. Shakespear, I. A.]
484. Shaikh Mubarak was again somewhat ill during the second week of May ;
though apparently he did not find his indisposition sufficiently serious to call
in either the Agency Assistant Surgeon or Dr. Harrison of the American Mission.
485. Shaikh Salim bin Mubarak returned from the desert on the 27th.
486. Shaikh Mubarak left for Mohammerah in his yacht on the 29th.
Local Government.
487. Assad Beg, the Turkish doctor in charge of the Arab charitable dis
pensary at Kuwait, who has been to India, returned on the 25th with about Rs.
5,000 worth of medicines and surgical instruments for the dispensary.
488. It is said that owing to reports of a settlement having been reached by
the British and Turkish G overnments in the matter of the Baghdad Railway, which
will now come to Kuwait, a number of merchants are acquiring sites from the
Shaikh on the foreshore west of the town.
489. Yusuf Nasrani, who was engaged in November 1912 by Shaikh Mubarak
as assistant to his Customs Master, Abdul Mehsin, has been dismissed by him.
He left for Basrah in the beginning of the month. His dismissal was not expected
and is piobably the result of intrigues on the part of the other members of the
Customs establishment.
Condition of
Country,
Most of the Kuwait pearling boats left for the banks in the first and second
weeks of May, the remainder leaving in the third week.
491. Ibn Rashid. In the second week of May it was reported that Ibn
Rashid had raided some sections of the Ateyba tribe, some 90 miles S.-W. of Hail
in the vicinity of Jabal Muwasham. It appears the Ateyba had previously raided