'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎13r] (25/46)

The Western Frontiers of India.
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between the devil and the deep sea; Germany may precipitate
another difficulty at any moment; and Russia, in that case,
must assert her claims to an equivalent position in the Gulf.
Yet there was a time not long distant when we were un
challenged in the Gulf and in a position to do almost as we
pleased in Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , wherein our trade, now borne
by Messrs. Lynchs steamers on the Tigris, will in the
future have to compete with the land-borne trade of the
German railway. It will also have to face all the obstacles
placed by the Turkish Administration upon navigation, and
the access to the Kermanshah-Hamadan-Teheran trade-
route, with which is worthy to be classed the attitude of
the Persian Government in respect of the navigation of the
Karun, of the trade of which 95 per cent, is British. No
doubt it is this unwelcome preponderance in our favour
which accounts for the obstruction placed in our way by
the new Belgian administration of the Persian Customs.
The future of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. is irrevocably bound up
with the fortunes of India, and it is hardly necessary now,
when this subject has so recently received the attention of
Captain Mahan and other eminent writers, to enlarge upon
the many and obvious proofs of a position, which is only
disputed by one or two Russophiles, whose eyes nothing
can open, if a mere recital of the facts before mentioned
does not point to the absolute necessity of allowing no
encroachment in this quarter, even at the cost of a rupture
with a great Power. Such a calamity as this is, indeed,
more likely to be precipitated than avoided by concessions
in regard to a matter vital to our Empire. We know now,
after the event, that we had better not have given away at
Panjdeh, and that Russia was not ready for the fray. The
Russians are already linking up the Transcaspian Railway
system with the Siberian Railway on the north and with
Meshed on the south, and from the whole trend of their
policy it is as clear as daylight that from Meshed through
Seistan towards the Gulf will be the next, if not an
early, move. Such a line would just avoid the border