'PERSIAN GULF AND GULF OF OMAN. RESOURCES AND COAST DEFENCES.' [‎70] (78/114)

70 PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .—RESOURCES AND DEFENCES.
Koweit. That shows how completely the noble lord has mis
understood the position which His Majesty's Government
assumed in regard to this question. What was the situation
of tact witn which we had to deal ? There is in existence a Ger
man railway pure and simple, the Anatolian railway, stretching
from a point not far from Constantinople to Konia. That was one
fact. The other fact teas that a German company had been offered
a concession under which it was open to them to extend this German
railway from Konia to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Now, at no moment did
we contemplate, did we ever discuss, the possibility of giving our
adhesion or giving any support whatever to any project of thai kind
(hear, hear); and therefore, when the noble lord suggests that ive
contemplated the arrival of a German system at Koweit he entirely
misapprehends the ideas that were present to our mind. What was
under our consideration was the possibility of obtaining the substitu
tion for this purely German system of a line of an international,
character, constructed under guarantees which ivould have secured
pei manently its international character and which ivould have
secured for the commerce of all nations absolutely jree and equal
treatment from sea to sea. That was a very different proposal
surely from the proposal to bring a German railway to the Persian
Gulf ; and it was also part of the proposals which were ventilated
that this country should he given full equality with any other Power
in respect to th< construction of the line and in respect to its main
tenance and control ajter it had been constructed. I therefore do
not apologize for setting the noble lord right on a point with
regard to which he, like many other critics, has, I think, fallen into
a serious misapprehension. At any rate I suggest to your lord
ships that we might have been very severely taken to task if we
had absolutely refused to discuss proposals of this nature, which at
one time certainly seemed to point to a solution, which, I venture
to think, might have been proved to be a prudent and states
manlike solution of the difficulty. (Hear, hear.) I do not feel
justified in taking up your lordships' time iurther with regard to
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. the Baghdad Railway project. 1 now pass to the closely con
nected subject of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . I feel sure that the noble
lord's interest in the Baghdad Eailway scheme was because he felt
it did closely affect our interests in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . I do not
yield to the noble lord in the interest which ] take in the Persian
Gulf, or in the feeling that this country stands with regard to the
navigation of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in a position different from that of
any other Power. The noble lord told your lordships with abso
lute truth that it was owing to British enterprise, to the expen
diture of British lives and money, that the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. is at this
moment open to the navigation of the world. It was our ships
that cleared those waters of pirates ; it was we who put down the
slave trade ; it was we who buoyed and beaconed those intricate
waters. Well, at this moment out of a total trade in the Gulf
ports of 3,600,000/.—the figures are those for 1901 ; we have
none later—2,800,000/. represents the commerce of this country ;
so that it is clear that, up to the present, at all events, we have
succeeded in preserving a liberal share of that commerce. But