مجموعة ٥٦/٣٠ "الخليج الفارسي. زيارة أسطول السفن المدمرة الصغير الأول إلى: ١٩٣٣. دربار الشيوخ المتصالحين في دبي. إعادة تأكيد بيان سياسة اللورد كرزون عام ١٩٠٣" [و‎‎٧‎٦] (١٦١/١٥١)

Address by His Excellency the Viceroy at a Public
Durbar held on board H.M.5. ’’Argonaut” on the 21st
November 1903 at Shargah for the Arab Chiefs of the
littoral.
Chiefs of the Arab Coast who are in Ireatv relaU fina
with the_ British Covemment . - I have come here as the
representative in the great Empire of India of the British
authority which you and your fathers and fore-fathers have
known and dealt with for more than a hundred years; and my
object is to show you, that though you live at some distance
from the shores of India, you are not forgotten by the
Government, but that they adhere to the policy of guardian
ship and protection which has given you peace and guaranteed
your rights for the best part of a century; and that the
first Viceroy of India who has ever visited these waters does
not quit them without seeking the opportunity of meeting you
in person and of renewing the assurances and engagements by
which we have been so long united.
Chiefs, your fathers and grandfathers before you have
doubtless told you of the history of the past. You know
that a hundred years ago there were constant trouble and
fighting in the Gulf; almost every man was a marauder or a
pirate; kidnapping and slave trading flourished; fighting
and bloodshed went on without stint or respite; no ship
could put out to sea without feat* of attack; the pearl
fishery was a scene of annual conflict; and security of
trade or peace there was none. Then it was that the British
Government intervened and said that, in the interests of its
own subjects and traders, and of its legitimate influence in
the seas that wash the Indian coasts, this state of affairs
must not continue. British flotillas appeared in these
waters. British forces occupied the ports and towns on the
coast that we see from this deck. The struggle was severe