Coll 30/59 'Persian Gulf. Creation of Persian Navy, etc' [‎304r] (608/624)

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Mr. Wakely,
;
In view of Mr. Baxter’s suggestion that this
despatch may come up for informal discussion on Friday, I
submit it at once.
2 * Prima facie , if it were practicable for us to
supply armed launches to the Persians to assist them in anti
smuggling measures, and if we could arrange for the seconding
of junior Naval officers for short periods to look after
their preventive service, there might be a good deal to be
said for it. For one thing, it would certainly be much more
satisfactory from our point of view that, if the Persians are
going to have some sort of naval force in the Gulf, it should
be under our auspices and not under those, e.g. , of the
Italians. The chances of friction both with H.M. ships in
the Gulf and with the Rulers of the Arab littoral would be
very greatly reduced by the presence in command of British
officers.
3. From quite a different standpoint, assistance of
this nature to Persia might, in view of the great importance
clearly attached by the Persian authorities to putting down
smuggling, be a valuable bargaining lever.
4 As regards finance, I do not quite follow Sir
Robert Clive’s proposal in paragraph 8 . Presumably it is
that we should earmark £510,000 of the agreed debt for the
supply of armed launches, remitting the remaining £ 1 , 000,000
in return for the general settlement, Bahrein, etc.
r. The decision must very largely turn on the
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