File 50/1914 Pt 6 'Persian Gulf: lighting and buoying; provision of dioptric lanterns at Bushire' [‎207r] (65/112)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
[December 22.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1,
[51284] No. 1.
Treasury to Foreign Office.—(Received December 22.)
Sir, Treasury Chambers, December 21, 1911.
I HAVE laid before the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury
Mr. Mallet’s letter of tbe 30tb ultimo, together with a copy of a letter from the India
Office, dated the 18th November, which accompanied it, further respecting the buoyage
and lighting of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
My Lords gather from 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. letter that the Secretary of State for India
in Council is now of opinion that the places in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. where lighting and
buoyage are most required are Bahrein, Bushire, Bunder Abbas, and Jask, and they
note that the financial provision for these purposes would amount to an initial
expenditure of 2,800Z. with a recurrent charge of 21OL per annum.
It will be within the recollection of Secretary Sir E. Grey that in the Foreign Office
letter, Secret, of the 11th October last, he, acting in accordance with the information
furnished him by 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. , represented to their Lordships the importance of
providing for buoyage and lighting at Shat-el-Arab, Musandim, Tamb Island, Sheikh
Shuaib, and Bushire on the ground that at these places exceptional circumstances
rendered a provision of this character most urgently necessary, and in their reply of
the 28th October last my Lords, with certain modifications, sanctioned the proposals
put forward on the express understanding that the measures suggested were of urgent
and pressing necessity, and that exceptional considerations from an international point
of view had to be taken into account.
It would now appear from the telegram dated the 30th September last from the
Government of India that, of the places referred to in Foreign Office letter, Secret, of
the 11th October last, Bushire alone requires one lighted buoy as a matter of urgency,
and incidentally I am to point out that in their letter of the 26th October last my Lords
had urged the substitution of a buoy for a light-ship, which had been suggested by
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. as required at that place. Apart, however, from this particular point,
I am to state that my Lords cannot but regard as highly unsatisfactory the whole
method in which these proposals have been placed before Sir E Grey and themselves,
and, in view of the discrepant and varying statements as to the places where
provision of buoyage, &c., is of primary importance, they are not disposed to sanction
as a charge on the Exchequer the moiety of the expenditure proposed in the letter
under reply, and they must further request that no action should be taken on the
provisional sanction conveyed in their letter of the 26th October to the undertaking of
various works referred to therein.
When their Lordships are placed in possession of what may be taken as final and
reasoned proposals for the lighting of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , they will be prepared to give
them their careful consideration, and, if necessary, to sanction a moderate expenditure
for the purpose. Sir E. Grey is aware of their Lordships reluctance^ (which they feel
sure he shares with them) to burthen the British tax-payer with expenditure for
purposes so apparently remote, and. in their view, the sole justification for undertaking
such charges must be imperative considerations of a political or commercial
character. On the conflicting evidence before them they are not satisfied to what
places in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. these considerations apply.
I am, &c.
T. L. HEATH.
[2294 y-1]