File 345/1908 Pt 2 'Mohammerah: situation. Sheikh's dispute with the Vali of Basra. decoration for Sheikh. renewed assurances to Sheikh.' [‎174r] (352/566)

[This Document' is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Governnie
CONFIDENTIAL.
[24858]
PERSIA.
S ACTION 1.
[July 11.]
Sir G. Lowther to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received July 11.)
at Bussorah in regard to the state of the relations now existing between the Sheikh of
Mohammerah and the Vali of the Bussorah vilayet.
I have, &c.
GERARD LOWTHER.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consid Crow to Sir G. Lowther.
(No. 35.)
Sir,
Bussorah, June 9, 1910.
WITH reference to my telegram No. 37 of the 9th instant, I have the honour to
transmit a translation of the Sheikh of Mohammerah’s reply, which Haji Reiss handed
to the vali on Sunday morning, the 5th June. Haji Reiss visited me the same evening,
and according to his account, the vali gave him a friendly reception, kept him to
lunch and discussed the Zein business and general relations with Mohammerah
unreservedly. Both parties gave their respective versions of the immediate events
which led to the breach, and the vali remarked, inter alia, that local reports had been
sent to Constantinople complaining that he left the administration of outlying districts
too much in the hands of the Sheikh o f Mohammerah, and said he had been censured
by Constantinople in consequence. He read and accepted the sheikh’s written reply
to his letter without comment, saying merely that he had nothing against the sheikh
personally, but he wanted his loyal assistance to catch Turkish criminals who escaped
to Mohammerah, and professed himself willing to reciprocate if Persian criminals fled
to Bussorah. He added he would not allow the police to take advantage of the friendly
understanding between the sheikh and himself in order to make a scapegoat of
Mohammerah whenever they failed to catch culprits, and said applications for
surrender would only be made in well-authenticated cases after careful enquiry, and
production ^ of satisfactory evidence of the parties’ guilt. He assured him friendly
relations with the sheikh were now restored.
Haji Reiss asked the vali to write a friendly private letter to the sheikh to that
effect, and the vali undertook to do so. Haji Reiss also referred to the partial
destruction of some of the sheikh’s new buildings on the Ashar creek, and the vali
agreed to examine the ground in his presence on the following day, and see what
was required.
I called on Abdul Wahab Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. -el-Kartass at Saraji, about 3 miles down river,
on the 6th June, and discussed the affair with him. He is an intimate friend of
Sheikh Khazal s, and is well aware of all that has lately occurred. He agreed to
visit the sheikh at Mohammerah as soon as Haji Reiss had returned, and inform me
how matters stood. Haji Reiss called again on me in the evening. He brought me
a copy in Arabic of the sheikh’s reply, and showed me a sealed private letter which
he had received from the vali for the sheikh, of which, however, he did not know the
contents. He said he had come to an amicable understanding with the vali about
the sheikh’s new houses, and had arranged to stop all work until the vilayet engineer
had drawn up a plan of the proposed new" quarter to work upon. Haji Reiss then
left for Mohammerah.
I called on the 'vali on luesday morning the 7th June. I had not met him since
his return from Bagdad on the 1st June. He w r as friendly and polite, but observed
a frigid silence in regard to the Mohammerah question. When I broached the subject
he expressed deep resentment at my interference, and could not believe that the
British Government, which had helped Turkey so much in past years, was now going
to turn against it on account of the little Sheikh of Mohammerah. He said he could
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