"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٨‎١‎٥] (١٧٨٢/٩٧٠)

Zubarah were his subjects and had acknowledged the fact in the pre
sence of Colonel Pelly, the late Resident. Colonel Ross, after receiving
a report on the subject from his Assistant in Bahrain, Major Grant,
informed Government that the sovereignty of Qatar was indeterminate,
though the whole of the coast had lately fallen under Turkish influence;
and, the rights claimed by the Shaikh of Bahrain being uncertain and
beyond the power of the possessor to enforce, he at the same time asked
Major Grant to disuade the Shaikh, as had been done in the past, from
entangling himself in the affairs of the mainland. Colonel Pelly, the
ex-Resident, to whom the papers were referred for opinion, considered
that the question of territorial sovereignty should still, so far as possible,
be avoided; and he thought that the Shaikh of Bahrain, while he was
acknowledged to possess certain rights of pasturage, etc., on the Qatar
coast, should not therefore be held to be empowered to put to sea for the
purpose of coercing any port in Qatar. Meanwhile, in September 1873,
the Shaikh of Bahrain had again asserted his claim to Zubarah and the
obedience of the Na'un tribe and asked whether he must relinquish it;
and at length, towards the end of the year, the Government of India
expressed their general concurrence in the view that the Shaikh of
Bahrain had no clear or important rights in Qatar and that he should be
restrained, so far as possible, from raising complications on the mainland.
In September 1874, after attempts on their part to cross over from Zubftrah at-
Qatar into Bahrain bad been foiled by movements of vessels of the ^^foreed'by
Bombay Marine, the Bani Haj ir turned their attention to the Xa'im the Shaikh of
Bahrain
village of Zubarah ; and, but for the appearance of the " Hugh Rose "
gunboat there, they would probably, notwithstanding a brave resistance
bv the small summer garrison, have taken the place and obtained posses
sion of boats with which they might have invaded Bahrain The delay
gave the Na'im time to return in strength from Bahrain and the pearl
banks to Zubarah, where they shortly inflicted a decisive defeat upon the
Bani Haj ir. Before the end of the year Nasir-bin-Mubarak, a Bahrain
refugee, appeared upon the coast of Qatar, and the prospect of Zubarah
falling into his hands caused great alarm to the Shaikh of Bahrain, who
asked permission of Colonel Ross, the Resident, to reinforce Zubarah, on
the ground, first, that Zubarah was a dependency and invaluable outwork
of Bahrain, and again that, if he failed to help his allies the Na^im in
their extremity, he would forfeit their support for the future. Colonel
Ross was moved by these arguments to agree to the reinforcement of
Zubarah as a purely defensive measure ; but his action was not altogether
approved by the Government of India, who considered that, in view of