ملف رقم ٣٤٥ لسنة ١٩٠٨ الجزء الثاني "المحمرة: الوضع. نزاع الشيخ مع والي البصرة. تقليد الشيخ وساماً. تجديد التطمينات للشيخ". [ظ‎‎٥‎٢] (٥٦٦/١٠٩)

and again expressed his deep sense of obligation for our support.
During the same interview he mentioned that the assurances as now given did not
refer to the question of his customs or to our own probable attitude towards him in the
event of the break-up of Persia. . , XT
These points were covered by items 5 and 6 of Foreign Office despatch .No. 108,
dated the 6th July, to Mr. Marling, and I disposed of them on the lines indicated by
His Majesty’s Secretary of State in that communication. The sheikh did not press
them, saying that he was now greatly reassured by what we had given him, and most
grateful for the document now vouchsafed.
As regards his customs, he ultimately made a fresh proposal or offer which requires
dealing with separately on its merits. In fact, the whole question of the Mohammerah
customs, by the light of eight years of the Belgian administration, needs bringing up
to date, and I have asked Lieutenant Wilson to draw up a memorandum on the subject,
and submit it with the sheikh’s present proposal.
6. I should mention that on arrival at Mohammerah I found the Sheikh of Koweit in
his launch, anchored at Failiyah alongside Sheikh Khazals palace. It seemed to me
that his presence at the presentation of the K.C.I.E. to his fidus Achates might be taken
advantage of to revive the former reports crediting the two sheikhs with sinister Arab
ambitions, to which we lent secret encouragement. I therefore had a talk with Sheikh
Mubarak, who readily fell in with my views (in which Sheikh Khazal inwardly
concurred), and spent the day of the ceremony at Bussorah, with Ahmed Zuhair Pasha,
returning the morning afterwards.
7. I am sending this communication with enclosures (of which I attach a list) via
London, with a copy to His Majesty’s Foreign Office, and am also forwarding a copy to
the Government of India.
IN continuation of my letter dated the 9th October, 1910, to your address,
to be observed.
It was arranged that the presentation of the K.C.I.E. should take place the following
morning in Durbar at the Failiyah Palace at about 9 A.M., and the Persian Foreign
Office agent, the headmen of the sheikh’s various tribes, the European community, and
I have, &c.
P. Z. COX, Lieutenant-Colonel,
British Besident in the Persian Gulf.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Consul-General Cox to Government of India.
(Confidential.)
Sir,
Bushire, October 23, 1910.
I have the honour to acquaint you that the insignia of a Knight Commander of the
Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire were duly delivered to Sheikh Khazal Khan,
Sheikh of Mohammerah, in Durbar at his palace at Failiyah on the 15th instant, the
ceremony being as follows :—
2. I proceeded from Bushire in His Majesty’s ship Bedbreast,” placed at my
disposal by the senior naval officer, arriving at Mohammerah on the afternoon of the
13th October, soon after which I received a visit from Haji Rais at the consulate. On
the 14th, accompanied by His Majesty’s consul, I visited the sheikh to inform him of my
mission, and to arrange the day and hour for the function and details of the ceremony
mmmm—