'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎10r] (19/314)

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cut in Picture
of a medieval
galleon.
Animation on
map.
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Shot of Muscat.
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Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
scenes
Sea scene
Muscat harbour
.. But after him the curtain of history fall again
till fiuropean galleons sail in at the Straits of Hormuz,
having rounded the Cape of Good Hope in the wake of Vasco
da Gama. Then began the struggle of Portuguese, Dutch and
English for the trade of the Gulf, for the favour of Pers
ian Khans and princes, for the establishment of their
factories ( agencies, as we should now call them). The
details of that struggle I need not give. The significant
thing for us is that the two main rivals based themselves
on India; and the struggle passed slowly from a contest
of England with Portugal to a contest of Bombay with Goa.
India, after her forgotten wave of expansion to the is
lands which now are the Netherlands East Indies, again
began to look beyond the seas; and it was to the Persian
Gulf that her eyes turned. Jask, Bandar Abbas, Bushire -
all along the Persian coast the East India Coy. established
its factories; until finally in 1763, Basra became its
chief trading establishment. The southern, or Arab, coast,
as you see, was left neglected. The treasures of oil,
which, aided by the xenophobic commercial policy of the late
Shah of Persia, have in the last half-centu»y swung the
balance across the Gulf, still lay undreamed of below the
surface•
5. Side by side with the urge to peaceful trade went
responsibility for peace, health and safe navigation in
the Gulf coasts and waters; and the next phase was the
slow transference from the Interests of a strictly
commercial company to the wider outlook and developing
policy of a Government. This started long before the
transference of actual government in India from the Company
to the Crown. Early in the 19th century, the Company
appointed its Political Agents in Muscat ( and it is a
tragic commentary on the devotion of these men, as well
as on the Muscat summer, that three out of the first four
died at their post, and now lie on the shore of a lonely
little bay opposite the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , surrounded
by mountains and accessible only by sea).
6 . India's first great problem in developing her new
field of trade was the suppression of piracy. Along the
southern shore of the Gulf, formerly called the Pirate
Coast, in the multitude of salt-water creeks lurked the
Jawasimi corsairs - Qawasim One of the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates; also used to refer to a confederation of seafaring Arabs led by the Qāsimī tribe from Ras al Khaima. , to give them their correct
pronunciation. One by one, their strongholds were reduced
until a final expedition was launched against Ras-al-Khaima
(*'the headland of the ten*" - the name probably derived from
a look-out post encamped on the end of the spit of land,
past which ships must sail to enter the lagoon). The
pirates were crushed and the '’maritime truce" of 1820
signed by every bhaikh. ( From this truce the coast derives
its present name of Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , a rather more respectable
title than the old "Pirate Coast"). The Gulf was safe
for India's trade from the hand of man. It is perhaps
of interest to remark that a few years ago, a gold dinar
of Humayun's reign was dug up on the beach at Has-al-Khaima,
and was presented by the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. to the British Museum.
7. After the ravages of man, the next enemy to be tackled
was the stormy and uncharted sea, full of reefs, rocky
islets, tide-rips and overfalls. To this takk the ships
of the Bombay Marine The navy of the East India Company. , direct progenitor of the Royal Indian
Navy, betook themselves, side by side with their sisters of
the Royal Navy. Their names, with the name of every ship
that has anchored in the harbour, are painted in white on
the steep volcanic rocks that surround the port of Muscat.
Above them flashes the modem light-house whic^with scores
of other buoys and beacons, commenorates their achievement.
Warships, cargo ships, and passenger ships have all written
their names in this unique " visitors' book." French ships