'Report and Proceedings of the Standing Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on the Persian Gulf' [‎8r] (20/94)

guilty of the unfairness of cross-examining him on statements made in debate, but he
did lay down what struck me as very important and very interesting, namely, the
doctrine that Turkish sovereignty in these regions, which is the point we have before us,
was a thing of great importance. He will remember his own language, and I will not put
it in mine ; but I think we should be greatly instructed if he would tell us what was the
view which found favour with the Government of India when they made that arrangement
with the Sheikh ol Koweit, and if he would tell us also what is the bearing of that line
of argument upon our situation to-day. Perhaps lie would tell us to what extent he
would allow Turkish sovereignty to prevail, in what form, and with what limitations.
LORD CURZON : Lord Morley, I am very grateful to you for honouring me by
giving me the opportunity of attending this Committee, and I need hardly say that if
I could render any assistance, which I do not think at all likely, I should be only too
proud to do so.
I am in some little difficulty, because, of course, I have no cognisance of what has
happened officially since I left India. Politics were very active in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in
the time that I was there I concluded, as you have reminded us, the original agree
ment with the Sheikh of Koweit. I visited Koweit, and negotiations, often of a
somewhat troublesome character, were going on during nearly the whole time I was in
India with the Turkish Government and with the Sheikhs on the shores of the Persian
Gulf.
I was refreshing my recollection before I came here to-day by looking up my
papers, and I found that during the whole time I was pressing a course of action upon
His Majesty’s Government, not, I think, really of a dangerous or aggressive or forward
description, but anyhow a course of action a little in excess of what they were prepared
to adopt. On almost every occasion the desire that I expressed that such and such an
assurance should be given, or that such and such a Treaty should be made or repeated,
was not regarded with favour at home. I am not criticising the conduct of His
Majesty’s Government at all. They have always been, and naturally, I think, very
nervous about extending their responsibilities on the coast of the Gulf, particularly
because of the opportunities of collision that it offered with the Turkish Government. I
have a very distinct recollection of the points as they then existed on each stage of the
west shore of the Gulf, but I am afraid that what I might say would be a little bit
obsolete now, perhaps wholly obsolete, because I do not know what has happened since.
We had a definite policv in those days for Bahrein, we had a definite policy as regards
El Katr, that promontory that projects into the sea, where the Turks have always been
advancing pretensions that we resisted.
VISCOUNT MORLEY : You would not allow them to assert any claim south of Ojair.
Ojair, would you ?
LORD CURZON : I have always regarded Ojair (Ukeir) as the southern limit of
that part of the coast over which they had established, rightly or not, something like
definite and incontestable claims. South of that I think we did contest, and successfully
contest them. _
1 have here the details of what we did in those days about El Katr. If His El Katr.
Majesty’s Government take the line that El Katr is a place over which we neither
admit, nor ought to admit, Turkish sovereignty I am satisfied, only the situation is a
little hit complicated by the fact that I think they have traces of actual occupation
there now as they had then.
SIR EDWARD GREY : The Turks have ?
LORD CURZON : The Turks. You will remember that in the time Lord
Kitchener and I were in India, they tried the experiment of appointing_ Turkish
officials to three places in El Katr—Zabara, Wakra, and Odeid (Khor-al-Odeid). _We
protested, and the Turkish Government ultimately withdrew their representatives
from there. YYhat has happened since I have no knowledge of, so whethei the Turks
have improved their position as against us or not, I do not know.
VISCOUNT MORLEY : Though I want to get to the Shat-al-Arab, still as we
are down at El Katr I may say it is proposed by some and urged even by some who
are in the Gulf at this moment—our Admiral and so on, as Captain Hunt will tell
us —that we should now definitely assert our complete and undenied contiol over the
Limits of
Turkish
sovereignty.