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'Arms traffic in the Persian Gulf, 1908-1928' [‎72v] (4/4)

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The record is made up of 1 file (2 folios). It was created in 8 Oct 1928. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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13. lo deal with the matter the Conference recommended the main
tenance of the existing naval forces in the Gulf; the application of pressure-
to the local Sheikhs ; the grant of authority immediately to establish a motor
boat coastal patrol should an increase of the traffic take place ; the
establishment of a wireless installation at Koweit; and the making of efforts
to persuade the Sheikh of Koweit to establish registration of arms on the
lines accepted in Muscat in 1912.
Naval C. in C' M
E. Indies, to Adm.,
Mar 21 1!»21. P.1795.
14. The death in March 1921 of Sheikh Salim of Koweit had removed
the principal figure in the arms traffic, and the succession of Sheikh Ahmad-
el-Jabir afforded on opportunity to apply pressure to the Principality in the
matter (cp. para. 3 of Koweit Memorandum on p. In view of this, and
of the finding of the Conference that the trade in arms was relatively
insignificant, the Government of India and Ills Majestvs Government
decided that tiie problem was not sufficieutlv serious to justify special
expenditure on wireless or special coastal motor boats, and that existing
arrangements were probably adequate to meet it.
Tel. from Pol. Res.
to S. of S. for I.,
May 1 1925, P. 1345.
Pol. Res. to <}. of L,
May 16 1925,
P. 1909.
Pol. Res. to (t. of I.,
March 18 1926.
P. 1416.
i.o. to c;. of i.,
Sept. 23 1926,
P. 3106.
15. That decision has been justified by events. The new Sheikh of Koweit
has actively co-operated with His Majesty’s Government in the suppression
of the arms traffic since his accession in 1921 ; by 1925 the Political
.Resident was able to report (in connection with the deliberations of the Arms
J i afm Conference at Geneva) that the trade, whether to Makran or to the
littoral between the Shatt-al-Arab and Lingah, was relatively unimportant;
in April 1920 it was decided that the maintenance of the telephone and
patrol establishment, instituted on the Makran coast in 1907 in connection
with the abolition of the arms traffic was no longer necessary ; and while
in the same year the efforts of the Persian Government to‘ disarm their
subjects on the south Persian coast led to a temporary increase of smuggling
from that coast to Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. (in connection with the suppression of
which His Majesty’s Government agreed that, provided they reported their
captmes, the 1 racial C hiefs might be authorised to retain, for the use of
their own military forces, such arms and ammunition as were seized by them),
the icpoits of the local authorities have otherwise shown year by year a
consistent decrease in the trade, to which the exhaustion of the supply of
arms on the Arab coast has doubtless contributed.
Summary.
16. While a continual vigilance is necessary, the problem at the present
day is one of inconsiderable dimensions, and the engagements existing
between His Majesty s Government and the rulers of the Arab littoral and
Persia, coupled with the presence of His Majesty’s ships, are adequate, if
strictly interpreted, to keep it within bounds. On the Persian littoral it is,
moreover, definitely to the interest of the Persian Government that it should
be reduced to the lowest possible level, but Persia is only slowly establishing
hei authority in Persian Baluchistan; she is for practical purposes impotent
by sea; and so far as she is concerned the trade is kept under thanks to the
efforts of His Majesty’s Government. An international undertaking on the
lines of the Arms Traffic Convention of 1925, if ratified and put into force,
Mould afford a valuable additional obstacle to any recrudescence of the trade
U in the ab 1 8ence of su ? h an undertaking, the fact that the Convention
ot 1J1J was signed, if not ratified, by the principal arms exporting countries
othei than the United States of America, has the advantage of reducino-
substantially the danger of obstructive action such as that taken by France
in the early years of the period now under consideration in connection with
the arms traffic in Muscat.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ,
8th October 1928.
J. G. L.

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Memorandum outlining developments in the suppression of the trade in arms in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. from 1908-28.

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Written by John Gilbert Laithwaite of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .

Extent and format
1 file (2 folios)
Arrangement

This file consists of a single memorandum.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 71, and terminates at f 72, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

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English in Latin script
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'Arms traffic in the Persian Gulf, 1908-1928' [‎72v] (4/4), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B410, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100029571478.0x000005> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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