'NEJD EXPEDITION PRECIS.' [‎79r] (28/68)

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75
NEJD EXPEDITION PRECIS.
25
* Pages 208-209.
t No. 18,
dated 22nd February 1870.
„ 28,
„ 20tb May „
„ 31,
„ 27th „
„ 32,
„ 27 th ,, ,,
„ 13,
„ 3rd April 1871.
,, 14,
,, 3rd „ ,,
„ 26,
„ 23rd May „
♦Page 383.
S " One corvette, 17 guns, at Kateef.
8 Commodore's flag ship corvette, 17 guns, a
Bahrein."
" Gun-vessel, 8 guns, at Bahrein.
" Babel used as the Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. s steamer.
«Ashur j smal i jight draft steamers.
•'Corvette Broussa, under orders to Bombay for
repairs."
28. Representation addressed to
Home Government regarding the
above. —On receipt of the above inform
ation regarding an increase to the naval
strength of the Turks in the Gulf, the
Government of India addressed the fol
lowing representation to the Secretary of
State on the subject:—
" For* this intellig-ence we were by no means
prepared, seeing that the Turkish Government had
assured Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constanti
nople that no maritime operations in the Persian
Gulf were contemplated, and that the vessels then
employed in that Gulf were only intended as trans
ports for the conveyance of Turkish troops to
some point on the coast whence they could reach
Nejd.
" Your Grace will readily comprehend the diffi
culty which the continued presence of a Turkish
naval force would throw in the way of our
maintaining that position in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
which the British Government has, with the best
results, come to occupy, and which it is, we are
more than ever convinced, our true policy to
uphold. Our reasons have been fully laid before
Your Grace in the despatches marginallyf men
tioned, to none of which have we yet been favoured
with a reply; and in view of the many possible
contingencies in the neighbouring parts of Asia,
we conceive that at no time was the maintenance
of our position in the Gulf of more material
importance than at present to British interests, to
the encouragement of trade, and to the preserva
tion of the peace of the Indian Seas. It would
be to us a matter of deep regret that so faithful
an ally as Turkey, one for the very existence of
whose power England has made such sacrifices,
should be the first to take a step calculated to alter
a state of thing's, the maintenance of which we
consider important to the interests of our Indian
Empire, and from which, both in a political and a
commercial point of view, the Porte herself has
gained, and would continue to gain, so much profit
without any expense on her part.
"We would, therefore, earnestly impress on
Her Majesty's Government the necessity of taking
immediate measures to ascertain definitely what is
the policy of the Porte with regard to the Persian
Gulf, and whether it is their intention to consti
tute it for the future one of their naval stations.
If any such intentions have been formed by the
Government of His Majesty the Sultan, it is, in
our opinion, necessary that the objections which
we have stated at considerable length in our previ
ous despatches should be fully laid before them, and
that no effort should be spared to induce them to
abstain from a line of policy the adoption of
which we could not contemplate with indifference,
and which, we believe, would be injurious to the
best interests of Turkey herself."
The following statement of the naval
strength of the Porte was given to Colo
nel Pelly by the Turkish Commodore in
November 1871. Colonel Pelly wrote +;—
" The Turkish squadron now in the Gulf the Com
modore enumerated as per margin. § He added
that two more corvettes were under orders from
7
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