ملف رقم ١٢٦٥ لسنة ١٩٠٧ "الخليج الفارسي:- المحطات اللاسلكية" [ظ‎‎١‎٩‎١] (٤٣٤/٣٩١)

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experience in effecting the protection of Bahreinis and subjects of the Trucial
Coast are primarily due.
4. It is of interest to note here th?t whereas I have always prohibited the
Persian employes of the Residency from joining the numerous mushroom societies
which the national movement has generated and from identifying themselves with
party politics, the representatives of other Powers appear to place no such res
trictions on their men, who in the case of Bunder Abbas seem to be actively
encouraged thereto by Monsieur Ovseenko. But it is difficult to formulate
definite charges in such matters, which could be fully substantiated if necessity
arose, and I can only hops that the evil is a temporary one which in view of our
altered relations with Russia will disappear with Monsieur Ovseenko’s departure
on leave or elsewhere, or perhaps with the relinquishment altogether of the
Russian Consulate at Bunder Abbas for which there is now no serious justifica
tion.
With the above exception, Russian competition in the Gulf whether com
mercial or political may, I think, be regarded for the present as giving us little or
no cause for anxiety.
5. The attitude of Germany.— comparatively lately the German
Consulate at Bushire may be said to have been merely a post of observation, but
since the inception of the Hamburg-Amerika Steamer Service to the Gulf and
the conclusion of the Anglo-Russian Convention it can no longer be regarded
in that light. In May 1907 Dr Listemann, the incumbent of the German Con
sulate, was translated to his Legation for the summer and since his return, after 6
months under the influence of Herr von Richthofen, his bearing has altogether
altered. Whereas formerly he used to mix freely with the rest of the Bushire
community socially, he is now-a-days seldom seen anywhere and keeps very much
to himself. Officially, though outwardly friendly, he shows himself in many
little ways more prone to worry than before, and at present the question of Gulf
Quarantine seems to be the direction in which, apart from the Abu Musa Case,
his energies are chiefly directed. But though it will no doubt assume more
of a political aspect as time goes on, the present Angio-German question
in the Gulf and Southern Persia is essentially commercial, and it is to that aspect
of it that we now need chiefly to direct our energies. In this connection
I may mention that Messrs. Wonckhaus’s Agency at Lingah is being worked
with great activity under Mr. Brown, who has sometimes two, at other times
three German Assistants with him, and they appear to be using Lingah, where
owing to the absence of serious competition from our own nationals they can
practically do as they like, as a training ground for their newly-arrived Assistants
and as the head-quarters of their Gulf operations, as distinct from their Busreh*
Baghdad Branch. Moreover, Mr. Brown, except for his own Assistants, being
the only European now in Lingah, is identifying himself closely with local politics
and endeavouring to constitute himself a power in the place in a way which is
likely to prove of considerable inconvenience to us.
6. The effect of the recent national and constitutional movement upon the
administrative and economic conditions in Fars and on the Persian Gulf
Littoral .—might be written regarding the general results of the past 18
months working of the movement, but Government must be generally familiar with
its life-history, from the diaries and reports of their officers in Southern Persia,
and I will therefore curtail my remarks as far as practicable.
The national development is obviously one which any British Government
would be primd facie disposed, on principle, to w r atch with sympathetic interest,
and I think it may be presumed that it has been watched by their local represen
tatives in that spirit, in its earlier stages at all events. But even in the North
where the standard of civilisation is much more advanced and the people are
more ripe for regeneration, His Majesty’s Legation must, I think, be beginning to
despair at the continued prevalence of administrative chaos and the absence
of all effective government. In the south I confess I have seen no result from
the national movement and the attempt at constitutional government which has
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