'Memo on Mussondomom' [‎9r] (17/18)

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flionld be our Port, our Political Residence, our Central Telegraph station, our main
Gulf Coal Depot, our anti-slavery station, and our fulcrum' of general influence
over the Gulf, over the Pirate Coast, over Western Mekran, and over the Muscat
coast, climate being sufficiently favourable.
Lieutenant Stiffe, I. N., just arrived at Bushire, assures me that such a point is
fnidable just west, of Mussundoom ; that a few weeks ago, when on telegraphic duty,
lie visited a headland called, I think. Has Sheikh, which slopes up in tongue-like
fhnpe to the height of 1,000 feet, with good water and some cultivable ground at its
liise, with ample and land-locked anchorage, leading to a narrow neck of land
gome 400 yards wide, on the other side of which is a second inlet looking east of
Mussundoom.
1 consider such a position, if sufficiently healthy, would be the best possible for
your Gulf and Muscat Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , and that the Political business of both might thence
be more efficiently managed than either can be separately from Bushire and Mus
cat. At all events, in the present conjuncture of your Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. affairs, it would
be well, I think, for Government to go to some little trouble and expense to test
accurately the climates around Cape Mussundoom during the approaching hot sea
son. And I am sure I am ready to aid personally it the experiment.
Finally, if the plan now pointed at be adopted, I should consider we did not,
lose much at Bushire. Commercially, and when the Gulf and Tigris line shall be
fully developed, Bushire should not drain much trade beyond the arrondissement of
JShiraz. Politically, it forms part of the charge of H. M.'s Mission at Tehran, and
I do not think that Government in the least gains much by having the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in
the town of Bushire, where there is little of real importarice to transact, and where
fiudordinates gossip and have likings and dislikings, and these come to injure the
Government business in the lon<r run.
The Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. at Bushire might be sold or disposed of as Government please.
All lhat would be lost would be some little personal conveniences to the Resident
and his establishment, and the possibility of retreat to the neighbouring hills.
The immediate gai^s are, I think, obvious on reading the scheme map in hand.
W hat the future gains might be would become more manifest should a crisis ever
occur in our Red Sea line of communications.
(Signed) LEWIS PELLY, Lieutenant Colonel,
Acting Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. , Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
Bushirr, \ Itk-January 18()3.