'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. PART I - The Persian Gulf.' [‎29v] (63/92)

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had been obliged to retire to Bahrein and thence to conduct their business
with Katif at a disadvantage. In 1900, and again in 1903 on the occasion of
the Viceroy’s visit to Bahrein, they petitioned that arrangements should be
made for British consular representation at K.atif, and they even otfered to con
tribute towards the expense of the measure. In 1993 the rebates of customs
duty at Katif to which they were entitled and which they could not obtain
amounted to Rs. 25,000. In 1904 Lord Curzon suggested that either the
British Assistant Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Bahrein should be appointed Vice-Consul
for El Hassa, a native Consular Agent being at the same time stationed at Katif,
or that a clear statement should be made to the Porte of the disabilities to
which the British Indian traders were being subjected at Katif in order that
measures might be taken for their mitigation or removal. The second of these
alternatives was preferred by His Majesty’s Government, and, representations
having been made to the Turkish Government, a promise of complete redress
and future good treatment was eventually obtained.
During Lord Curzon’s Viceroyalty the Arab, principality of Koweit,
hitherto obscure, was forced into a prominent place in Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. politics by
a conflict of British and Turkish interests. The ruler of Koweit at this time
was Sheikh Mubarak, a man of remark-
Koweit, a kj e astuteness and force of character,
who had attained his position in 1896 by the assassination of two elder brothers.
Prior to Mubarak’s accession the Turks, though they regarded Koweit as sub
ject to their authority, had shown little interest in the place; but soon after
wards, instigated perhaps by the sons of the murdered Sheikhs who had taken
refuge in the Wilayat of Basrah and owned property there, they began to occu
py themselves with Koweit affairs. In 1897 a Turkish quarantine official
arrived and took up his residence at Koweit.
Mubarak, alarmed by the intrigues of his- fugitive nephews and the attitude
of the Turkish Government, made repeated endeavours to obtain British protec
tion, but the British Government were not at first inclined to undertake any
responsibilities on his account. In 1898, however, rumours of Russian designs on
Koweit, the grant to Count Kapnist of a concession for a railway from the
Mediterranean having its terminus at Koweit, and signs that a Turkish expedi
tion against Koweit was impending obliged His Majesty’s Government to re
consider the position; and eventually the Viceroy of India was authorised to
prevent, by force if necessary, a Turkish attack upon Koweit and to conclude
a secret engagement with the Sheikh; this was the first political measure affecting
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. which it fell to Lord Curzon to carry out, and it was also one
of the most important. The desired agreement was signed on the 23rd of
January 1899 by the Sheikh on behalf of himself, his heirs and his successors.
On the part of the Sheikh it was agreed that no foreign representative should be
received at Koweit and that no portion of Koweit territory should be alienated
to foreigners, or to a foreign Power, without the consent of the British Govern
ment; in return Mubarak was assured that the good offices of the British
Government would be extended to the ruler of Koweit so long as the new
agreement was respected by him. On the conclusion of the agreement a
British news- agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in charge of a native official was established at Koweit;
a British gunboat also remained for some time in the vicinity to afford the
Sheikh moral support, and Mubarak found himself in position to decline to
receive a Turkish harbour master who was sent from Basrah to Koweit to
take charge of the port.
The attitude of the Turks, however, continued to be menacing, and in May
1899 it was reported that they were inciting Ibn Rashid, the ruler of Northern
Central Arabia to attack Koweit,—a course to which he was naturally disposed
inasmuch as his rival Ibn Saud, the rightful chief of Southern Central Arabia
whom he had expelled, was then living in exile at Koweit under Mubarak’s
protection. Except however for the visit of a German railway commission
in January 1900, the circumstances of which have been already described, no
important developments took place at Koweit until August 1900 when Ibn
Saud, with the countenance of Mubarak, suddenly left Koweit to reconquer
his ancestral dominions from Ibn Rashid. About the same time Sadun