'Memorandum on the Drafts of Despatches regarding the Affairs of Muscat and Zanzibar' [‎28r] (5/24)

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families with them, and still more rarely settle.
Their legal domicilium is always at ports of Western
India, 1 atta or K.urrachee in Jbind, in various towns
of Cutch and Kattywar, Bombay, or Calicut.)
(5.) we have, by treaty and long usage, an
almost exclusive right of interference with nearly
half the Arabian seaboard, and that we have, up to
the present time, actively enforced those rights.
The Indian Government* in former days, under
Lords Wellesley, Hastings, William Bentinck, and
Auckland, sent embassies and expeditions, fought
at Ras-el-Khyma, bombarded Mocha, occupied Kar-
rack, and took Aden, to maintain our position; and
no Government of India, up to three years ago, ever
dreamed of repudiating our powers and responsi
bilities in those seas.
, (6.) That France, America, and Russia are all
most anxious for a footing on these coasts. France
sent Mr. Gifford Palgrave “ to look for an island,”
and the French Commodore now in those seas has,
I have every reason to believe, an eye to the de
velopment of that idea. The operations of Prussia
and America, with a similar object in view, are in
abeyance while their hands are so full at. home, but
they are never concealed or denied by Americans
or Germans interested in the east, nor is there any
thing for Americans or Germans to be ashamed
of, or to be regretted by us, in their prosecution.
But it is quite certain that wherever we recede
from the position we have so long held, one of these
powers will step in. We shall not annihilate our
interest and responsibilities in Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and
Arabian affairs. We shall simply transfer them
from the Indian authorities, to whom they tra
ditionally belong, and who do understand, or ought
to understand, them, and who can manage them
economically, and we shall make them over to the
Foreign Office, who will not, and cannot, know
much about them, or give them much real atten
tion, until some question arises which assumes the
aspect of a European complication, the solution of
which will cost millions.
(7.) That Russia is passive in Southern Persia
and Arabia, because whatever happens must work
to her advantage. Russia well knows that nothing
will induce us to attempt extending our Empire at
the expense of Persia, Affghanistan, or Turkey, and
that all three Empires must gravitate towards the
aggressive powers, which are at present Russia and
France.- If we prop up Turkey and Persia, and
help them, as we do now, to develop trade, and
to become richer, so much more valuable will be
the prize when it comes to be shared. Meantime,
we keep out French and Americans, and other less
peacefully disposed powers. In promoting our own
peaceful views we are doing the work of Russia,
and if we were, instead of a telegraphic line, to
make a railway from Tiflis to Bushire, Russia would
hardly object. It would aid her to sit astride of
9638 b. B