"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٢‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٥٨٤)

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up, before his formal investiture, the sum of £15,000 offered by him as
earnest money at an earlier time when he was competing with his brother
for appointment to the Shaikhship ; the Shaikh, in reply, persisted that
he could not raise so large an amount without first returning home; and
the result was deadlock. Colonel Kemball protested against the delay
thus occasioned, but in vain. He says :
To my appeal on this head His Excellency lias remarked that the interests of the
telegraph must give way to those of the Government, and although he still looks
for a speedy decision of the question, did it even issue in the postponement of the
work till next autumn, he would not consent to a sacrifice of authority which must
eventuate in confirming the jwoM-indepcndence of the Montafik Chiefs by assuring
them of the means on all future occasions of evading their just obligations.
The Pasha then summoned Shaikh Fahad again to Baghdad, as also
another Shaikh named Mashari, in the hope that by playing them off
against Shaikh Mansur and against each other he might be able^ if not
to institute a Qaim-Maqamliq of Suq-ash-Shuyukh, at least to bring
under direct Turkish government districts below and above Qurnah
which he had in the beginning decided to separate from the Muntafik
Shaikhdom. Colonel Kemball, though he still regarded the reduction of
the Muntafik country to the status of ordinary Turkish territory as
desirable, at this point began to have doubts of the ability of the Local
Government, in a military sense, to effect the change within any reason
able time. He left Baghdad for Hillah, however, prepared to push on
the extension of the telegraph southwards as soon as an opportunity
should occur.
On the 13th of March 1864, at the request of Namiq Pasha, who
had received a telegram from Constantinople demanding an explanation
of the long continuance of the Muntafik difficulty, the British Political
Agent returned to Baghdad. The Pasha informed him that Shaikh Nasir
and Shaikh Fahad both declined to undertake the farm of the Muntafik
districts, while Shaikh Mashari was too weak and uninfluential to assert
himself, if nominated; he acknowledged that the Muntafik were now
unanimous in their determination to resist his projects, and that the
season of the spring floods was too near at hand to allow of military
operations—which would, moreover, alarm the Porte—being undertaken;
and finally he requested Colonel KembalFs opinion. That officer recom
mended that the general question of the form of Government of the
Muntafik country should be referred to Constantinople; that in the
meanwhile Shaikh Fahad should be installed as chief, to avoid any
appearance of surrender t "j the implied menaces of Shaikh Mansur and
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