File 345/1908 Pt 2 'Mohammerah: situation. Sheikh's dispute with the Vali of Basra. decoration for Sheikh. renewed assurances to Sheikh.' [‎65r] (134/566)

[This Docmaent is the Property of His Britamric Majesty’s Government
ivkii
1
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[September 17.]
Section 1,
[25031]
No. 1.
"hY
Sir Edward Grey to Sir G. Lowther.^ Jp''' ^ ^
(No. 279.) \ \
Sir, Foreign Office, Septerijiber 17 , 191 ^.
I HAVE received your Excellency’s despatches Nos. 318, 337, 349, 367, 402, and
452 of the 18th, 24th, and oOth May, 8 th and 21st June, and 5th July respectively,
forwarding copies of reports from] His Majesty’s consul at Bussorah respecting the
recent dispute between the Vali of Bussorah and the Sheikh of Mohammerah.
After a careful study of these papers, which may be considered to present the vali’s
case in connection with this question, and of a despatch from His Majesty’s consul-
general at Bushire, copy of which is enclosed for your information,* setting forth the
history of the incident fronythe sheikh’s point of view, I have reached the conclusion
that the conduct of the vali was violent and arbitrary, which, moreover, the Porte
appear themselves to admit from the fact of his recall, and that the attitude of the
sheikh was not otherwise than conciliatory and reasonable.
It appears to me that Mr. Crow, in his treatment of this question, has failed to
realise what are the relations of His Majesty’s Government with the sheikh and the true
interests of Great Britain in the regions of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and that this is proved by
his failure to inform your Excellency by telegraph of the vali’s projected attack on \jo
Zein as soon as it came to his knowledge (see his despatch No. 22 of the 23rd April to ^
your Excellency), a step whereby most of the complications which subsequently arose
might very likely have been avoided, and by the statement in his letter of the 27th April
to His Majesty’s acting consul at Mohammerah, that the sheikh’s day of reckoning had
come, and that, though the action of the Turkish authorities might be arbitrary, he
would press for them to be supplied with the proper means to carry it through (see
enclosure No. 6 in Colonel Cox’s despatch No. 2, Confidential, of the 16th June).
I cannot but consider that Mr. Crow’s conduct in connection with this incident has
been injudicious and ill-calculated to further the policy of His Majesty’s Government,
and I must request your Excellency to call on him for an explanation of his general
treatment of the question, and, in particular, of his attitude on the two points specified
above.
A copy of the assurances which it is proposed to convey to the sheikh is enclosed
for Mr. Crow’s information.
I am, &c.
E. GREY.
[2894 r—I]
* Colonel Cox, No. 2, Confidential, June 16, 1910.
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