‏"ملخص الأحداث والتدابير الرئيسية التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون، نائب الملك والحاكم العام للهند في إدارة الخارجية. ‏I‏. يناير ١٨٩٩-أبريل ١٩٠٤. ‏II‏. ديسمبر ١٩٠٤-نوفمبر ١٩٠٥. المجلد IV. بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي." [و‎‎٤‎٧] (٣٨٦/٩٨)

80
meeting every emergency. The British naval arrangements in the Gulf were
reorganised; new marine surveys were carried out; foreign demonstrations
were answered by counter-demonstrations of superior force. The number of
British political representatives in the Gulf was increased and steps were taken
simultaneously to add to their dignity and prestige. The general effectiveness
of British action in the Gulf was intensified, by improvements in passenger,
postal and telegraphic communications ; the interests of British trade were pro
moted by the despatch of commercial missions ; and the political history and
geography of the Gulf region were brought under close investigation. Prepara
tions were made for safeguarding the rights of the littoral Arabs in the Arabian
pearl banks, and measures were taken to restrict the traffic in arms and
ammunition and to localise its dangerous results. . In Oman French intrigue
was checked by firm action at Maskat, the question of the trench flag was
carried before the Hague tribunal by whom it was settled in favour of Britain,
and the Sultan was converted from an attitude of suspicion and hostility to one j
of confidence and regard. In drucial Oman attempted aggressions by the
Persian Government were frustrated and a remarkable advance in material
prosperity took place. In El Katr piracy was repressed, the maritime peace
was maintained, and the designs of the Turks upon the peninsula were effec
tually thwarted. In Bahrein the authority of the British Government was
proved and emphasised by strong and successful measures for the protection of
foreign subjects, and trade flourished in an unprecedented degree. In El Hassa
piracy was to some extent checked, in most unfavourable circumstances, and
obstacles which had hampered British trade were partially removed Koweit was
saved from falling under Turkish domination, was defended from the menaces ot
the Amir of Jabal Shammar, and became a British protectorate in everything
but name Civil war and Turkish intervention in Central Arabia were watched
with a vigilance which precluded the possibility of injury to British interests
at the coast. In Turkish Arabia the Shiah doctors of Kerbela and Nejef, the
true leaders of public opinion in Persia, were brought lor the first time into
close relations with the representative of the British Government at Baghdad,
and measures were devised for the repression of piracy on the Shat-el-Arab
which failed only because the Persian Government withheld their concurrence.
In Arabistan intimate relations were formed with the Sheikh of Mohammerah
which assured the predominance of British influence m Ins councils. On the
coast of Persia throughout its length British interests were maintained with
success and an important position was secured at Henjam; while m Persian
Mekran, notwithstanding internal anarchy, British subjects and property were
adequately protected.
It is impossible, by any analytical process entirely to disentangle from
one another the causes by which the cessation of the attack on British mteiests in
the Gulf was finally brought about; and it is hardly easier to draw any clear
distinction between'tlie policy of the Government of India and thatof fits Majesty s
Government, with which it was blended and in which it was absoibed.
chan"O in the international situation in Europe and elsewhere was undoubtedly
a factor of first-rate importance in the recovery of British prestige ; but it came
‘too late, had British policy in the Gulf been supine, to avert permanent injury
to the British position. In the defensive political campaign of this difficult
time it was ordinarily the function of the Government of India to suggest and
to execute, of the British Government to direct and to control, the conduct of
“rations in the diplomatic field devolved upon ills Majesty s Government,
wffiile the political contest in the Gulf itself was waged for the most part by
Indian officers and with Indian resources.
Lord Curzon, among whose first political acts was the Maskat ultimatum
of 189.) and whose tour in the Gulf at the end of 1903 marked the rca con
clusion of the troubled epoch, was entitled at bis departure from India in
November 1905 to regard with satisfaction both the issue of the struggle and
the part which bad been played in it by his own Government. Moreover he
had evolved a new and original conception of the Persian Gult as forming in
itself a complete and distinct political entity; this idea, latent rather than
expressed, dominated his own policy in the Gulf region and may now be
regarded as bavin" entered the domain of established political principles.
° G. C. Press, Simla.-No. 079 F. D.-10-5 07.-S6- J. D.