"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [و‎‎١‎٤‎٥] (٦١٦/٢٩٤)

AND THE MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR THE YEAR 1907-1908.
97
dead. The Nakhodas of both the boats took their corrplalnts with due expedi
tion to Sheikh Esa, but owing to intrigues with the Chief's servants and
underhand negotiations with the various Kazis of importance, no judicial
investigation was attempted, in spite of the Political Agent's repeated protests
until January 1908. The usual excuse given was that one or the other party
was engaged on the pearl-banks, and the result of the protracted delay was
that the Al bu Falasa leaders, who had come to the conclusion that they were
the most out of favour, went off in the autumn of 1907 to Katif to ask for
Turkish protection, and subsequently on the same errand to Basrah, where,
according to local gossip, they received a favourable reply. In January 1908,
the Political Resident after discussing the case with the Political Agent,
addressed an emphatic remonstrance to Shaikh Esa about the delay, pointing
out the danger of allowing the feud to drag on unsettled into the next pearl
ing season, and insisting on the necessity for taking serious notice of the breach
of the maritime peace.
Several weeks then elapsed, and the parties had only appeared once before
the Head Kazi, when at last the Chief wrote to the Political Agent, early in
the commencemeat of the current year, to the effect that the Al bu Falasa
tribe had in fact defied him and were contemplating removal from Bahrain
en masse. Some progress was then made with the case, but as it has not yet
been definitely concluded the account of its settlement must be deferred to
next year.
In August 1907, the marriage was celebrated with considerable eclat of
two young grand-children of the Chief. The bridegroom was Shaikh Khalifa,
son of Shaikh Esa's eldest son, Salman, who died in 1893, and the bride was a
daughter of Sheikh Rashid, the Chief's third son, who died in 1902. As the
cause of both Salman and Eashid's death was tuberculosis, the augury for the
young couple's future is not very promising.
In the same month a Persian book-seller and contributor to Persian
newspapers of articles, hostile to the British Government, named Agha
Muhammad Ardakani, was expelled from Bahrain by the Chief, after the
Political Agent had shown to the latter an example of the man's writings.
In Kovember 1907, a serious fracas occurred in the Manama Bazar
between some hundred Kowait divers and a number of Turkish military
deserters, loafers and shop-keepers. The Kowait men recognized a Basri who
had absconded a few years previously, when a diver, from one of their boats.
After some days' pour parlers with the man who gave a surety, a converted
Christian shop-keeper, for the satisfaction of any claims legally proved against
him, the Kowaitis suddenly attempted, on the eve of their departure
from Bahrain, to rush the defendant and his surety on board a boat without
troubling about any legal formalities. The two men were rescued by their
compatriots and in the ensuing scuffle seven Basris were severely wounded with
knives and staves, while an equal number of Kowaitis received less severe
contused wounds. All the injured men were brought to the Agency Hospital,
and though the local feeling among the Sheikhs and other Arabs was at first
strongly in favour of the Kowaitis, the excitement soon died down when the
circumstances became generally known, and it was found that two of the
Basris, who suffered from concussion of the brain, were in serious danger. It
was arranged that the Basri injured men should remain in the hospital until
the case came on for trial and was disposed of, while the Kowait leaders were
made to execute a bond not to leave the port with any of their three boats for
the same period. After the expiry of a fortnight, when only one Basrah man
remained under treatment, the case was heard by the Chief Kazi, Shaikh Jasim-
bin-Mahza', with the Agency Interpreter attending ; and after two sittings an
amicable settlement was arrived at on the Kazi's suggestion, under which the
Kowaitis paid the Basris Es. 300 as compensation for their severer injuries, and
the incident was declared to be closed.
On the 13th November 1907, the Persian Haji Abdun Nabi Kal Ewaz,
who had been the Port Landing Contractor for cargo from steamers for several
years, was dismissed from his post by the Chief for the apathy and neglect
with which he had be3n carrying on his work, and the work was transferred to
a Syndicate of Ewazi, (feunni) Persians whose chief agents are Abdul Aziz