ملف رقم ٢١٨٢ لسنة ١٩١٣، الجزء ٤ "الخليج الفارسي: السياسة تجاه ابن سعود (بعثة النقيب شكسبير)" [و‎‎٤‎٨] (٤٢٦/٩٢)

CONFIDENTIAL.
Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel ^ . G. Grey, Indian Army, Political Agent,
Kuwait, to the Secretary, Political Department, India Office.
Political Agency, Kuwait,
Dear Sir Arthur Hirtzel, 16th June 1915.
I he enclosed is perhaps important or interesting enough to send
to \ on direct in view of the time which correspondence takes to reach the
India Office, particularly now that the mail journey from India is extended
by a week. The position has materially improved during the past few
days ; the waverers among Arabs are more soundly converted to us by our
success than by any other form of persuasion.
Yours very truly,
\Y . G. Grey.
From Lieutenant-Colonel Y\ . G. Grey, Indian Army, Political Agent, Kuwait,
to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, No. C/8 of 1915,
dated Political Agency, Kuwait, 9th June 1915.
Sir,
According to the Times, Lord Curzon of Kedleston is reported to
have remarked as follows on the occasion of an address by Mr. P. Landon
on Basrah and the Shatt-ul-Arab, at the Society of Arts, on 15th April
last: —
“ Hitherto we had had most friendly relations with the Arabs. It was
rather a puzzle to him why at those earlier stages of the fighting the
Arabs appeared to have sided with the Turks, and it certainly
should be the object of our diplomacy to detach them from the side
of the Turks and to resume those pleasant relations with them which
had characterized our policy during the last 50 years.”
And again in the House of Lords on 2uth April :—
“ And they (the Turks) appeared to have succeeded in pressing into
their service the greater part of the Arab tribes in the lower part of
Mesopotamia. This was a matter of extreme importance, for we
had always maintained, and he thought were still maintaining,
friendly relations with the tribes in that part of the world.”
The Right Honourable the Secretary of State for India is reported to
have replied on the latter occasion that:—
A considerable number of Arabs had joined the Turks in the attacks.
A t the battle of Shaiba, where there were certainly not less than 10,000
Turkish troops engaged, probably approaching the same number of
Arabs took part in the operations. It had been perhaps too hastily
assumed at first that all Arabs, when Turkey joined the Germans,
would take part in breaking the Turkish yoke. Of some Arabs,
particularly many of the desert tribes, this was no doubt true.
How far it applied to the more sedentary Arabs who, he took it,
supplied the Arab forces now operating, it was not so easy to say.
It was reasonable to suppose that probably a considerable number
bad proved willing to join Turkey now because the}’ had had it
* S. 274.