"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٦‎٥] (١٧٨٢/١٦٢٠)

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146&
lC points wliere the administration of tlie country is vested in Arab
" Sbeikhs/ J
We had formerly occasion to remark the hostility which British Attitude of
political intervention and general enterprise excited in the rulers of
Turkish 'Iraq under the Sultanate of 'Abdul Majid; and it must be wards British
interests
confessed that the prestige acquired by the British Government through
the successful establishment of mail and telegraph services in the reign
of 'Abdul 'Aziz was not, any more than the virtual monopolisation of
commercial steam navigation on the Tigris, calculated to assuage the
dislike with which the Turkish authorities were accustomed to regard
manifestations of British activity in the province. The continual
intervention of the British Political Agent in tribal and other internal
affairs, though made inevitable by his responsibility in regard to
telegraph construction, must have been extremely irritating to the local
authorities; and the state of matters revealed in the following extract
from a despatch of Colonel Kemball, dated 4th May 1864, need cause,
therefore, no surprise.
From the known sentiments of Namik Pasha, I believe his real aim to be to force
on this issue. His dread of the extension of British influence among the Arabs
amounts to mania, of which the exhibition is no longer disguised. Thus, when advised
from the best sources that the elders of the Muntefik only needed my assurance of
the sincerity of Namik Pasha's concessions as regarded both the resumption ot their
lands and the treatment of themselves in order to make their submission, I tendered
my mediation in that sense, and submitted to His Lxcelleney diaftt> of t e e teis P r0
posed to write to them (of which I enclose copies). His Excellency, while admitting
their probable efficacy, replied that the example of the Lebanon, after the occupation o
Syria bv Ibrahim Pasha, had determined him to decline foreign intervention on a 1
occasions and in any form whatever, nor could he be persuaded of the want of parallel-
ism or analogy in the two cases.* ,-n- - l
Again, when more recently informed by a telegraphic despatch from Shebli Pasha at
Dewanieh that the heads of the Muntefik families proposed to address _ me collective y
in order to ask my mediation. His Excellency immediately sent to desire that I would
reject their application and refuse to answer it.
Thin course I have declined to adopt as needlessly diecourticms to my correspon
dent*,, but I have assured His Excellency tbat their letter when received should
be immediately laid before His Excellency and that His Excellency s ecision,
provided it were not coupled with any <> £ ^rflTSv
myself, should U ^1, t. a.m I
this condition, because, on the last occasion, whe , , i ifi QfifV,
! addressed Sbeith Nasaer and Munsoor (M despatch ^o 18. ^ 26th
March, 1864). His Excellency privately urged the former Chief, then, as now h.
guest at Baghdad, not only to repudiate my int^
telegraph as the canse of tbe eating declined to accede, but,
Sheiklx Nasser, perceiving the trap that was laid
. \ ,
L
. ; i" iii