ملف رقم ٣٤٥ لسنة ١٩٠٨ الجزء الثاني "المحمرة: الوضع. نزاع الشيخ مع والي البصرة. تقليد الشيخ وساماً. تجديد التطمينات للشيخ". [و‎‎١‎٣] (٥٦٦/٣٠)

(VA-
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From Lieutenant-Colonel Sir P. Z. Cox, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., Political Resident
in the Persian Gulf, to the Honourable Mr. J. B. Wood, O.I.E., Indian
Civil Service, Officiating Secretary to the Government of India, in the
Foreign Department, Delhi.
British Residency and
Consulate-General, Bushire,
gi r> 7th December 1913.
I have the honour to address you on the subject of our interests in
Arabistan and to invite Government to consider whether, having regard to
current developments, some steps are not now called for with a view to
making our predominant position in the province more definite and secure.
y
2. The developments to which 1 allude are both commercial and political
and relate to :— n
(i) The oil fields and their future. ^
(ii) Irrigation. h v/j \(l^
(iii) Railway enterprise.
(iv) Our assumption of the control of the Arabistan telegraphs.
(v) The establishment of the Shatt-el-Arab Commission.
(vi) Russian and German activity.
I shall endeavour to explain certain aspects of these problems as they
present themselves to my mind at the present time.
3. The oil-fields and their future .—In the course of the past four years
the Anglo- Persian Oil Company may be said to have passed safely through
the uncertain and difficult phases inseparable from the inception of great
enterprises of the kind, and, provided that the concern can be saved from
absorption by more powerful companies, its local prospects, in so far as the
possibilities of oil production are concerned, seem all that can be desired;
and, as I have stated in a recent letter, I gather that the promoters are
deterred from further substantial development of their concession less by
any lack of confidence on the part of their shareholders in the productivity
of the fields, than by the fundamental uncertainty of the political situation
in Arabistan. pit
Meanwhile the enterprise has assumed an aspect ol close and even
national importance for Great Britain in connection with the urgent necessity
which has arisen for earmarking, and assuring ourselves of, sources of supply
of oil sufficient for the needs of His Majesty’s Navy in localities easily
susceptible in emergency of our effective protection and control. From the
economic point of view, the outlook in Arabistan appears to have been found
hio-hly favourable by the Commission which has recently visited the fields
under Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade, but here again, the doubtful factor
lies in the want of political stability above referred to, prevailing m the
territories in question, qua component part of a decadent empire.
A-
Ir
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4 Irrigation .—This important subject has recently been brought into
renewed prominence in connection with the Karkunan Diversion Scheme,
and His Majesty’s Government have approved the suggestion of the
Government of India that we should obtain from the Sheikh of Mohammerah
a concession for a definite irrigation scheme from the river Karun in his
territories. In pursuance of instructions received in this connection, I
interviewed the Sheikh of Mohammerah in the summer and discussed con
fidentially with him and Major Haworth the subject of such a concession.
He then authorised me to inform Government that if the matter should at
any moment become urgent, he would
Telegram from Resident to Foreign and | )e p re p are d to grant US off-hand any
Minister No. 321/1237, dated lltli July concess i on we might desire in this
1913 ‘ direction; he was anxious, however,
that certain matters should simultaneously be represented to Government m
S. 244. A