‏"ملخص الأحداث والتدابير الرئيسية التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون، نائب الملك والحاكم العام للهند. الجزء I - الخليج الفارسي." [ظ‎‎١‎٧] (٩٢/٣٩)

55
Lord Curzon’s Government in 1900 along with the first, but its realisation was
delayed by the refusal of the Home Government to undertake a share in the
expenditure and by doubts of a technical nature as to the best means of carry,
ingit into effect; its object was the inclusion of the port of Bunder Abbas in
the circuit of the Persian Gulf cables. This it was originally proposed to
arrange by looping one of the existing cables between Jask and" Bushire into
Bunder Abbas bay ; but in 1902 a proposal by the Naval Commander-in-Chief
that telegraphic communication should be extended to Bassidore, suggested the
alternative of landing a cable on Henjam, where a British telegraph station
had existed from 1868 to 1880, and of constructing a branch thence to Bunder
Abbas. This alternative project was finally accepted by His Majesty’s Gov
ernment on the advice of Lord Curzon after he had personally visited Henjam
in 1903, and in April 1904 one of the Bushire cables was relanded on the
island and the telegraph station there reoccupied—without warning to the
Persian Government—-in virtue of the former concession which had never
been revoked. Subsequently in May 1905 the permission of the Shah was
obtained by Sir A. Hardinge at Tehran for the construction of a line from
Henjam, partly aerial (across Kishm island) and partly submarine, to Bunder
Ahbas, and it was completed before the close of the year ; this line was to be
worked by Persian operatives, and on repayment of the cost of construction
it was to become the property of the Persian Government.
During the period under consideration no important concessions were
Commercial conoessions. obtained by British capitalists in the
Persian Gulf region with the exception
of a monopoly granted to a Mr. D’Arcy in 1901 for the working of oil fields
throughout the greater part of Persia, including Arabistan where operations
have since been commenced by the syndicate bearing his name. Care, however
was taken to safeguard the interests of British enterprise wherever it* appeared
that an opening might subsequently be found. In 1902 an undertaking was
obtained Irom the Sultan of Oman, under the orders of the Government of
India, that he would not grant a concession to any foreign Government or
Company for working the coal fields inland of Sur until an opportunitv had
been given to the British Government of undertaking operations there in
conjunction with the Sultan himself.. The irrigation of a part of the plains of
Arabistan irom the Karun River having been proposed in 1903-04 by a Dutch
engineer who succeeded in interesting the Shah in his project, the Government
of India, m virtue of an agreement with the Persian Government, in 1905
deputed Major Morton, an officer of the Punjab Irrigation Department to
study the conditions of the Karun tract; the project of the Dutch engineer’was
soon proved to be fantastic and Major Morton was ordered to prepare an alter-
native scheme, but it had not been completed at the time of Lord Curzon’s
departure from ndia A guarantee that preference would be given to Brhfsh
agency should it be decided to carry out irrigation works on the Karuu was
sought from the Persian Government, hut it could not be obtained.
The foregoing paragraphs do not exhaust the manifestations of activitv
which resulted, during this strenuous period in the Persian Gulf, partly from
Land surveys and explorations. Cord Curzon’s direct instructions and
e t- i partly from his encouragement The need
of a geographical and histoncal handbook of the Gulf for the use of r 'liUcal
officers having made Use f feit, Mr. Lorimer of the Indian Civil Service was
in 1901 placed on special duty in the Foreign Office to comnilp s p n7I1 , +
but the task proved to be one of considerable magnitude and Ins not vet
completed In connection with the Gazetteer operations, detailed s^rvev^of
various districts were made during the cold season of 1904-05 bv a partv of
Indmn surveyors ; they resulted in the production of large scale mans of the
districts adjoining Maskat and Matrah in Oman of 11 ?„ 1 maps 0 t the
the country about Koweit and between KoweH and the Tifrk sTf d3 ’ 1
of the Bushire peninsula. Numerous iournevs of ev, I,-, r '* frontier, and
local officers. In 1901 Captain Cox Pol Heal A L^ P l°£ T 7 ere mado V
whole of Wadi Tayin in Oman from’the sea t^fts W , Masl i at ’ traTer sed the
coast by Wadi Semail ; in the following year the same i0 ^
remarkable journey across the whole breadth of Oman fro ® Abu^Dhabr to