"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٣‎٦‎٣] (١٧٨٢/٥٠٦)

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British Government would protect Muhammareh from naval attack by a
foreign power, and would afford him their general good offices and support,
so long as he continued loyal to the Shah/s Government and conformed to
such advice as might be given him by Britain. The British Minister also
entered into communication with the Persian Government on the subject of
Southern 'Arabistan and intimated to them that Britain, while she fully
recognised the sovereignty of Persia over Muhammareh and its dependen
cies, could not regard with indifference any political changes there which
might prejudicially affect British interests or afford foreign powers an
opportunity of interfering in local affairs. A satisfactory reply was
received, at the beginning of 1 903, from the Persian Government; and a
little later the favourable arrangements arrived at in regard to the
'Arabistan customs was made public, the Shaikh's chief anxiety being at
the same time set at rest by a formal grant to him and his subjects from
the Shah, in proprietary right, of the districts of Muhammareh, Pallalnyeh
and Hindiyan, of which he had feared that he and they might be arbitrarily
deprived by the Government. Renewed apprehensions on the part of
the Shaikh were relieved at the end of 190o by fresh assurances f'-jin His
Britannic Majesty's Minister in Persia, who had then lately visited
Muhammareh.
The attitude of Russia during the contest, thus happilyJeoncluded, had Russian
been consistently adverse to the Shaikh. In 1899, not long after the visit P 0 ^-7
of the " Gilyak " to the Shatt-al-'Arab, the Russian Consul-General at
Isfahan had come to Muhammareh and endeavoured to intimidate the
Shaikh, whom he informed that Russia was about to acquire a port in the
Persian Gulf and would enter into political competition with Britain in
that part of the world. In 1902 the Russian representative at Tehran had
actively supported the displacement of the Shaikh by the Belgian customs
administration, and during the progress of the negotiations at the capital
the Shaikh's agent there had been bullied by the Russians to such an
extent as to cause fears of his master's" succumbing entirely to Russian
iniiuence,—a prospect which was the immediate reason of the important
assurance given by Britain at the close of that year. A Russian Consular
Agent was appointed in 'Arabistan in 1902 in the person of a Dutch
merchant at Nasiri (Ahwaz). In 1904 Russian travellers made a tour
in Southern 'Arabistan, a Russian decoration was conferred on the Shaikh
through the Russian Consul-General at Bushehr, and a Russian trade
commissioner visited Muhammareh and the Karun ; but Russian policy in
'Arabistan had by this time been decisively checked.
The Shaikh's relations with Turkey, in which country he had great The Shaikh
possessions on the western bank of the Shatt-al-'Arab, were characterised aml Turke y'
by dignity and reserve; they were not entirely friendly.