"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٠‎٨‎٨] (١٢٦٢/٦٠٥)

2088
amount of which recovery as claimed was 1,500 Qrans. The circum
stances were considered exceptional by Captain Felix Jones, the Resident
a virtual fraud being involved to which the Native Agent of the British
Government at Lingeh seemed to have been a party ; and he accordingly
sent the " Clive^ to Lingeh with orders that repayment should be
pressed on the Shaikh in an uncompromising manner, yet without com
mitting the British authorities to any course of action, of whicli the
British Minister in Persia might disapprove. Circumstances connected
with the Anglo-Persian War no doubt influenced the Resident in his
choice of this somewhat unusual course ; the mission, however, succeeded
and the money was recovered.
Afterwards, the Court of Directors of the Hon'hle East India
Company having animadverted on his conduct in interfering between a
money-lender and an Arab Shaikh, Captain Jones wrote
The recovery of sums lent by our subjects to Arab Chiefs does in reality form no
pait of the duty of the British representative in these parts, though in his intercourse
with the Chiefs and people he has always endeavoured by friendly remonstrances to
advance their claims by recommending them to the Chiefs, so that they may receive
attention in regions where, without the occasional countenance of protecting authority,
their mercantile transactions and British Indian trade in general would be precarious
if not altogether stagnant.
^ *
At the same time I am fully impressed with the correction that the adjustment of
ordinary transactions between British Native traders and the Chiefs and the people of
these regions should not come under the consideration of the British Kesident, conducted
as such transactions are, in a complicated and usurious manner, peculiar to a needy
papulation on the one hand and a highly speculative and exacting class like the banians
on the other. Indeed, were interference the rule instead of the exception, it would
necessitate Courts of Appeal and British Consular authorities in every petty locality of
the Gulf. Moreover, owing to insecurity attending trade in all Arab localities, I have
more than once promulgated, to those engaged in trade, warning that they are pursuing
it at their own risk. The profits are, however, so great that they are heedless of
temporary losses and continue in the prosecution of gain, content with the assurances
of our general protection against open insult or oppression.
It was eventually laid down by the Grovernment of Bombay
" the Resident should, as a general rule, abstain from all interference
With the claims of merchants against chiefs and others on the shores of
the Persian Gulf ;» and the Secretary of State for India, with reference
to these instructions remarked that " Her Majesty's Government are
extremely anxious to avoid all useless interference with the pecuniary
and commercial transactions of these Arab chiefs and tribes, and cordially
approve the orders issued by you on the subject." Notwithstanding ^