SCHEDULE III Extract from Memorandum dated 4th February1904 - Government of India to the Secretary of State for India ......... So far as concerns Um Kasr and the neighbouringmainland, the claims of the Sheikh of Koweit do not appear to have beenstrong. But whatever may have been their validity, it would be difficult,and we would not now propose to try, to induce the Turks to abandon theoccupation which for the past year they have been permitted to maintain.The case of Bubiyan Island we regard as entirely different. Here we consider that the Sheikh has claims which can be sustained alike with betterreason, with greater prospect of success ...... In February 1902, ourPolitical Resident in the Persian Gulf reported that Sheikh Mubarak hadaddressed to him a written communication in which he advanced his claimto the island, and asserted that the Avazem tribe, who are his subjecto,had lived there since the occupation of Koweit for seven months during thesummer of each year, and had established fishing enclosures on the island.Colonel Kemball regarded the pretension as valid, and a like view appearsto have been held by His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople,who a few days later telegraphed to the Marquess of Lansdowne that theConsul at Basrah considered the Sheikh's claim to the island to be good.Sir Nicolas O'Conor, however, expressed the opinion that there was noobject in raising a conflict about Bubiyan Island while leaving the Turks inpossession of Um Kasr. Had the Ambassador then been in possession of theinformation which is now available, we believe that he would not haveentertained this view. With the shores of the mainland and of Bubiyan Islandin the possession of a single Power, the anchorages below Um Kasr and atWarba Island can at any time be converted into an impregnable harbour: andeven if the day is still distant when the banks of the Khor Abdulla are likelyto be armed with foreign forts or batteries, the undivided occupation by aGerman Railway Company of a potentially invulnerable position is not calculatedto donduce to the enhancement either of British commercial prosperity or ofBritish political prestige. Supposing, however, that we are able to makegood Sheikh Mubarak's claims, we at once place ourselves in a position toestablish, at the north end of Bubiyan Island, a post which would command notonly the anchorage but also the approaches up to Khor Abdulla, and we acquirethe power to assert, in such a manner as our paramount interests demand, ourright to participate in all arrangements relative to the prospective terminusof the Anatolian Railway. An additional argument, if any is needed, in favourof strengthening our position at Bubiyan may, perhaps, be found in the factthat the Khor is used as a place of refuge by pirates whom the Turkish Government is unable to control and who, as shown in the Administration Report ofthe Persian Gulf for 1902-03, commit piracies off Bubiyan. 6. His Majesty's Government have never admitted the Turkish claimto the island, and have, indeed, protested against the interference with thestatus quo involved in the placing of a post at Al Geit, where, prior to themonth of February 1902, the Turks had never pretended to exercise anauthority even of the most shadowy description, and where the total garrisonnow consists of some 6 men. On the same occasion we were informed byLord George Hamilton that the British Government would resist a Turkishadvance on the Koweit side of Subbiyeh. This place is separated only by achannel from the southern end of Bubiyan Island: and the claims of theSheikh to both positions seem to us to be of equal validity. 7. The proposal accordingly which we submit for your considerationis that the Porte should now be informed that we are unable to recognise theirright to maintain a station on Bubiyan, and should be requested to withdraw theirtroops; while at the same time we should establish a post on behalf ofSheikh Mubarak on the northern end of the island opposite to the southernanchorage. The Sheikh has always urged his claims to this island opposite to
