'File 19/109 II (C 17) Bahrain: Relations of Chief with other Foreign Powers' [‎177r] (359/534)

Confidential No 0 //G t
. B:-Hilit SUIKIICT. •
Shi
The Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. Bahrain.
23/5/22.
8 « * M «
ISsS.O-l Hon T ble the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Griilf,
soNFiQEm.
Memorandum.# I have mentioned to you that the behaviour of the Sultan*
of Uajd *3 agent here has A somewhat unsatisfactory .An incident has re
cently occurrxed from which it id fairly obvious the he places his
personal considerations before those of Bin aaud,and is inclined to
abuse his influence and the use of Bin Saud's name.
Shortly after I first arrived here,nearly all the merchants
of Bahrain came and protested against a customs regulation,by which all
except Qosaibi^and about one other Uajd merchant,were prohibited from
benixitting tfcpom the reduced customs charges on goods for transhipment
to Qatif and Ojair* This in fact conferred on him the monopoly of the
trade since noone else / paying full customs, rates could compete with him.
On going into the matter I discovered that it was due to
the customs officials having misunderstood instructions issued by you,
when the new scheme was introduced,and was obviously an error# The
matter was therefore put right and the reduiced charges brought into
force on all genuine transhipped consignments. This naturally affected
Khan Bahadur Qosaibi,who came to me in a state of excitement and
adopted a threatening tone and was altogether extremely rude. He said
Bin Saud should hear about it & he was sure he would not put up with it
etc. I explained that the matter in no way affected Bin Saud except
to stimulate trade and competition as regards imports into %jd which
was^ highly to his benifit,and that under no circumstances could I
ateit Qosaibi to drag Bin 3aud into Bahrain affairs purely because
he personally did not lilce a customs regulation which was fair to all,
and did not give him personally an unfair advantage over others.
He took the hint and since then has always been more polite,although ~
as in the matter of the Pallnurus' visit to Qatif f he seldom tries to
help,^ on that occasion would undoubtedly have put obstacles in the
way,had I not personally gone to see the Amir of Qatif,a visit of
Which Cjoaaibi aid not approve.He is not deairoas of a port being opened