'ملف رقم 9/50 (B 16) حادث دبي' [و‎‎١‎٥] (٤٩٢/٣٦)

29
behalf or by some other means, as long as the Captain of the man-of-war lying
at your port requires its retention. The real object and harmless significance
of the erection of the said pole has been fully explained to you verbally.
(2) You must intimate to me in writing your complete acquiescence in
the location of a telegraph post in your town whenever Government considers
necessary, and you must undertake to protect the station and the establish^
ment, as it is incumbent upon you to do according to the provisions of the
additional article appended to the treaty which your predecessors entered
into with the British Government on 4<th May 1853. A copy of that treaty
is in your possession. It is one of the several treaties which you formally
took upon yourself at the time of your succession to the Shaikhship, except for
which the British Government would not have recognised you as Shaikh of
Debai.
Then with reference to the fine in connection with the attack by your
subjects on the party from the man-of-war on 24th December 1910.
(3) You must collect and deliver to me on board H. M.'s Ship, within the
time specified above, 400 good rifles. Martinis or something better.
(4) You must pay over to me in cash a sum of 50,000 rupees, and the
said amount to remain at the disposal of the British Government. The
restoration or confiscation of the said amount wholly or partly will be contin
gent on your accepting the demands mentioned below.
(5) You must agree to the location in your port of a British officer as
Agent of the British Residency in the Persian Gulf, accompanied by a small
guard of Sepoys for his dignity and personal protection, and to his receiving
from you co-operation in acquiring a dwelling, and to your treating him on
the principles of friendship and protection.
(6) You must agree to a change in the character of the postal arrangement,
which is at present irregular, and the installation of an office on the lines of
those employed at other Gulf ports at which mail steamers call.
And if you do not bring yourself to comply with the first four of these
conditions in the period of 48 hours above mentioned, I shall have no alternative
but to ask His Excellency the Admiral to take such steps as he may deem
necessary for the exaction of the said demands.
These demands which I have made upon you are not made with a view
of encroaching on your Shaikhship, but on the contrary, for the strengthening
of your rule, and because the requirements of civilisation and trade call for
them; and as I explained to you verbally the British Government has been
protecting and looking after you Shaikhs like children for upwards of a
century, and it is not posssble that you should forget that and should persevere
in this primitive conduct of yours for all time.
This is what had to be explained*
May you be preserved.
P. Z. Cox, Lieut.'Col.,
JP
Dated 29th December 1910,
Translation of a letter from Shaikh Butti-bin-Soheil, Shaikh of Debai, to Colonel
Resident in the Persian Gulf, in reply to the ultimatum addressed to him on the 29th
December 1910.
Dated Debai, 30th December 1910.
After compliments.
I have duly received your esteemed letter and have understood what you
wrote.
The upshot of the discussion where we left it at the time we separated
was—
That the pole indicating the rise and fall of the tide in the Khor of Debai
hould be erected.