مذكرة عن السيرة المهنية للسير توماس إدوارد روجرز [و‎‎٤‎٤] (١١٨/٨٧)

Political Officers and two sloops of the Royal Indian Navy kept the Gulf
quiet which shows of what the personal influence of a few individuals was
koJL
capable". On the other hand, if the German effort looked like being stepped up
/v
our countermeasures would have expanded accordingly.
But no recognition of the Service's World War II achievements should omit
s'
tribute to its two outstanding members of the pre- and post-World War I years.
The challenges they faced may have been greater during the expansion of British
influence in Iraq and the Gulf as Turkish power declined and in Iran with the
growth of our great new oil interests, than those presented to their successors
in a time of less spectacular consolidation and even the foreshadowing of
retreat at the Indian power base. Nevertheless, Sir Percy Cox and Sir Arnold
Wilson (who also showed his mettle by stoking a P and 0 ship in the Red Sea and
dying as a volunteer rear gunner in the R.A.F. at the age of 56) were giants to
whom it is hard to measure up. We owed much of our prestige to them and other
predecessors and we surely did our work the better for the inspiration of their
example.
We also owed much to the very competent and devoted support of junior officers,
especially at Bushire, many of whom were Anglo-Indians and who shared with us
the rigours of work and climate.
Partly to confess that I take R.L. Stevenson's "I travel for travel's sake:
the great affair is to move" as at least a half true diagnosis of my case, and
partly to recall a curious coincidence bearing on my work in the Gulf, I mention
a short break I took from Bandar Abbas to the Middle East in 1943. It was dubbed
'language leave' and involved my taking lessons in Arabic in Jerusalem and staying
with a family. But I also planned sightseeing in my car along the 2500-mile
stretch to Cairo which I was determined to reach. I could hurry on the 800-mile
section to Bushire, for I had already 'done' the sights en route and even off it