File 1855/1904 Pt 6 'Koweit:- Status of Koweitis in Persia.' [‎305v] (120/154)

3. I am afraid, however, that these constant complaints prove a deliberate
policy*on the part of the Persian Government, of which the object is to destroy
our prestige and influence with the Arabs of the western shore of the Gulf.
The initiation of this policy was marked by the abortive attempt to occupy
Abu Musa and Tamb and, since that failed, the policy has been continued by
constant vexations, petty acts of oppression on Arab dhows, especially those
hailing from Howeit, and it has now culminated, if I have been correctly
informed, in a wanton and unjustifiable insult to an independent Chief under
British protection.
4. One of the most oppressive and vexatious forms of this policy is the
invariable assumption by the Customs Department that the Arab Nakhoda is
in the wrong, and must prove his innocence. I will instance the case of an
unfortunate, named Mubarak-bin-Khalifa.
5. This man was detained at Lingah for twenty-one days, having been
brought from Sheivah, where he had already been detained eight days for the
purpose. Twenty bags of grain were taken from him as security, and he was
told to wait and prove his innocence. There is fairly strong evidence that his
wheat cargo for which he was unable to account satisfactorily was legitimate,
and, having come under a pass from the Persian port of Mashur, was, six
months latter, re-exported from Koweit, but this naturally took time to prove.
The case has my attention.
6. Finding his other cargo rotting during his detention, Mubarak made
his escape, and put out to sea. The Belgians have detained him, and some of
his crew, pending trial for a month, and have confiscated twenty bags of his
grain for an offence which, there is reason to believe, he never committed, and
has yet to be proved against him, but for this last heinous offence in disobeying
their order to wait and prove his innocence, he is to be persecuted in every
Persian port, in winch he dares to show his face. They have caught him once
already, and attached a small boat of his, but could not manage to detain the
man himself, who is now in Koweit.
7. It is perhaps unnecessary to call to your remembrance the case, on
your office records, of the Koweit boat which, it is alleged, w^as searched
unsuccessfully for arms in the open sea, and then towed into territorial waters
and heavily fined for a technical breach of the Customs Begulations.
8. This extraordinary assumption that Arab Nakhoftas are bound to prove
that they have not committed an offence against the Customs Department
can have only one result, where on the one side we have a well-regulated
department, armed with clerks, regulations, and engines of oppression of every
description, and on the other ignorant Nakhodas seldom able even to read and
write.
. ^ ie filing in Koweit itself is very bitter against the Belgians, and
might at any time, lead to acts of retaliation on Persians, and thus the situa*
tion would become acute and dangerous.
10. If the Customs Administration persist in this course of conduct, the
only remedy that appears to me at all likely to meet the situation is that one
of our gun-boats should attend the Muzofferi and Persepolis, wherever they
go, especially in the open sea, and whenever they overhaul a boat hailing from
the western shores of the Gulf, the Commander of the gun-boat should insist
on laving a clear pnmd facie case against the boat being made out to his satis
faction or the immediate release of the vessel.
11. The alleged interference with boats hound for Basrah will no doubt
form the subject of a protest from the Turkish local authorities, and I would
venture to suggest that His Britannic Majesty’s Consul at Basrah be addressed
on the subject.
. conclusion, I would crave indulgence for this hastily written preli-
mmary report. The whole subject is under the close and anxious attention of
b eikh Mubarak and myself, and I hope, at leisure, to submit more fully
matured proposals for the solution of the very important difficulties involved