'Report and Proceedings of the Standing Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on the Persian Gulf' [‎14v] (33/94)

Importance
to India of
our position
in the
Persian
Gulf.
SIR EDWARD GREY : If we are to have a Commission at all, I do not see any
objection to admitting other Powers, because the more Powers who come into it and are
represented on the Commission, the less is the special position conceded to anyone.
VISCOUNT MORLEY : Does that not affect the prestige argument Lord
Kitchener and other people have urged ? I am the least of a prestige man in the
world, but I have always thought there was something in it. You will no doubt
completely alter your status in the minds of Indian friends and others if you are not
any longer monopolists and paramount. It may be necessary, but that is another
thing.
VISCOUNT KITCHENER: I do not see any other way out of it.
SIR EDWARD GREY : There is to be a great expansion of commerce going up
to a well-equipped and constructed port of Basra if the communication is kept open.
It is almost impossible to maintain monopoly of control if you have got no territorial
rights.
VISCOUNT KITCHENER : Of course we should have the vast majority of the
trade.
SIR WILLIAM NICHOLSON : The Germans tried to get a great deal of it, but
they failed.
VISCOUNT KITCHENER : We should always have that; we should always see
90 per cent, of the trade coming in British bottoms.
SIR EDWARD GREY : It could be met by claiming representation according to
the tonnage of shipping.
SIR WILLIAM NICPIOLSON : When I was in India, I was chiefly in the
north of India, where they know very little about the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . In Bombay, and
certainly about Karachi, they take an interest in it, but in the north of India, in
Calcutta, and in the south of India, they have never heard of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
VISCOUNT KITCHENER : And you never heard of Italy there.
SIR WILLIAM NICHOLSON : That is so : I mean to say that they do not
know who is in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , though they may hear that pearls come from the Persian
Gulf. The trade is very small—only about 3 millions counting both ways, and I think
most of it is in the hands of a few Parsis in Bombay. Beyond the Parsis in Bombay
and a few people periiaps in the Deccan, I do not believe if you were to go into the
north of India,, the Punjab, or the north-west Provinces, you would find they know or
care anything about the Gulf.
VISCOUNT KITCHENER : Indeed they do, for they go to Mecca and Medina
on their pilgrimages.
SIR WILLIAM NICHOLSON : They go by the Red Sea to Mecca or Medina;
they do not go through the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
SIR EDWARD GREY : I cannot say that the Commission would be necessarily
fatal to our prestige if it is limited to this particular question of keeping the
navigation open.
LORD CURZON : I think I can reply to Sir William Nicholson’s argument in
two senbences. The first is that many people in the Gulf would equally give it as their
opinion that they do not care twopence about Peshawar ; therefore. I am not the
least impressed by what you tell me about Calcutta not being interested in the Persian
Gulf. The second point is the real value of your prestige. When you get to the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. itself you see that it is all-important to us and very directly affects us,
that we should maintain our position. I need not go into the whole question of what
it means if we do not maintain our position, but we should certainly have to increase
our expenditure and augment our naval force and a hundred different things. I do not
think I need^ pursue that. Really, the importance of keeping our position in the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. is very great. The point before the Committee is a grave point, whether
that position would be impaired by an International Riverain Commission, sitting, I
imagine, at Basra, in order to control the river between Basra and Eao, with
representatives of the different Powers upon it in proportion to the tonnage of their
shipping going up there.