"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٠‎٣‎٧] (١٧٨٢/١١٩٢)

to Ilffl'
1037
of the town, but was driven back by Shaikh Mubarak^s men upon
Hafar; and the Shaikh himself then moved to Jahrah, where he
began to collect a force for purposes of defence, or possibly for offensive
action. Fears having been expressed by the Turkish authorities that the
concentration at Jahrah portended an attack upon Zubair, the Secretary of
State requested that the Shaikh might be warned, as before, to avoid
measures likely to involve him in difficulties in Central Arabia or with
the Turkish Government; but these instructions had been anticipated by
Colonel Kemball, the British Resident, who on the 18th of January 1903
had a long and friendly interview with the Shaikh at Kuwait and im
pressed on him the advisability of abstaining from action against Ibn-
Rashid, especially as the power of that chief was now, according to
Mubarak's own admission, on the wane. After this, at the beginning of
March 190S, the Wahhabi Amir, accompanied by his brother Muham
mad, visited Kuwait to confer with Mubarak, whose son Jabir was still
at Jahrali, holding that place with an armed force. This was the end ol
the alarms caused at Kuwait by Ibn-Rashid.
In these improved circumstances the visit of the Russian cruiser
" Askold" to Kuwait on the 14th of December 1902 and the joint visit
of the French cruiser " rnfernet" and the Russian cruiser " Boyarin,"
which lasted from the 4th to the 8th of March 1903, caused no
anxiety in regard to the local situation. On the latter occasion, how
ever, an interview at which Central Arabian affairs were discussed took
place between the Russian Consul-General from Bushehr and 'Abdul
'Aziz, son of Ibn-Sa'ud, who happened to be present in Kuwait.
A visit paid to Kuwait by His Excellency Lord Curzon, Viceroy and
Governor-General of India, on the 28th and 29th of November 1903,
which is described fully in another place, marked the consolidation of
British influence in the principality and placed in a clear light the Shaikh's
cordial relations with the British Government and his dependence upon
the British power ; indeed the Shaikh, on receiving a presentation sword
from the hands of the Viceroy, spontaneously described himself as a
" military officer of the British Empire/'' The ovation which Lord
Curzon received on landing seemed to bear witness to the popularity of
British connection ; and the impression produced on the minds of the
people and their chief by the sight of the East India Squadron must be
reckoned among the important political results of His Excellency's tour
in the Persian Gulf. Shaikh Mubarak was shown over the flagship
a Hyacinth"" and was much interested by what he saw, this being
the first time that he had* set foot on the deck of a man-of-war. At a
Visits of
EoBsian and
French war
vessels to
Kuwait,
1902-03.
Visit of Lord
Curzon to
Kuwait,
November
1903.
1
ivif
■. i I