File 3122/1921 Pt 1 'Persia: Quarantine arrangements' [‎121r] (237/1174)

anticipated at Mohammerah, and that it was to be hoped that
the British quarantine medical officer at Bushire, by
maintaining tactful relations with the Persian doctor there,
would in fact be able to see the quarantine service
satisfactorily maintained.
j.he Foreign Office, in demi-official conversation,
expressed themselves of the opinion that there was really
nothing to be done but accept Sir Robert Clive’s
recommendauion, and, on the 11th June, they officially
asked our concurrence in action on those lines (P. 3018),
forwarding at the sane time a despatch from the Minister in
wniuii dir nobert Clive pointed out that Persia was entirely
within her sovereign rights in sending her own doctors to
one Gull, that she was under no contract to the Government
Ox India to maintain a British-controlled quarantine
service, that she was not bound by any promise made at the
last International Quarantine Conference not to do what
sne nad done, ana that, in the circumstances, the only
possible policy was to minimise as far as possible any ill
effects on our prestige in the Gulf by the Persian action,
and to endeavour to induce the Persians to continue to
avail themselves of the wide experience and knowledge of the
British quarantine officers, with a view to maintaining an
efficient quarantine service.
No answer was sent to the Foreign Office letter,
io having oeen decided that the question was one a decision
on which had better wait until a decision had been reached
on the proposed Sub-Committee of the C.I.D. on the position
oi His Majesty's Government in the Gulf generally, and the
subjects to be considered by that/Cormnittee. This latter
quest,ion W as not settled until the beginning of July, and
the exact programme to which the Sub-Committee is to work