'Russia, India and the Persian Gulf' [‎18r] (35/46)

Proceedings of the East India Association. 31
enormous danger to India if any foreign power—to put it plainly, Russia
we re to be in command of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . What was meant by “ in
command of the Persian Gulf”? If they could imagine a naval Power
seated in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , with a fortified establishment, with docks, and
with a fleet present there—such as, for instance, the Russian Pacific
Squadron—it was obvious that we should have greatly to increase our
naval squadron in those seas. That would involve an increase of naval
expenditure. He agreed with Mr. Rees that what had been announced as
the settled policy of the Government must be maintained—that is, that we
should not allow (and we were in an international position to forbid) any
naval Power to establish itself upon the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . He did not, how
ever, agree with Mr. Rees’ suggestion that money spent, for example, at
Quetta on fortifications might better have been spent upon batteries, and war
ships, and repairing docks on the coast. The need for such expenditure, as
compared with other more necessary expenditure, had not arisen. The places
where, in modern warfare, great docks were needed for the repair of ironclad
ships were the places where those ships had to be kept to fight, and, up to
the present time, they had not had to keep them in Indian waters. In the
Far East they had the use of their establishments at Hongkong, and the
use of the Japanese establishments under the Treaty. They might have
to fight there, and so there they had the docks. They had docks for their
cruisers in Ceylon. So that he suggested that up to the present time the
necessity had not arisen for the expenditure of money upon docks at
Madras, or establishments on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Then came, probably, the
most interesting question they had to consider—namely, in what direction
the activities of Russia are most likely to be exhibited in the next few years.
Mr. Rees had compared possible activity in the direction of India as
in the nature of a feint rather than of an attack. He had hinted at
Manchuria being, even more than Persia, the present sphere of the activity
of Russia ; he had suggested, in his final words, that the drain of these
great experiments might be too great for Russia, and that she might break
down in pursuing her present policy. He (the Chairman) could remember
Russia very well some thirty years ago, and had travelled throughout the
length and the breadth of the Russian Empire. In those days it used to
be asserted that Russia was bankrupt, and could not hold on, but since
that time she had trebled or quadrupled her army, created her gigantic
fleet, and undertaken her marvellous railroad construction; she was racing
down through Manchuria, and racing also with her railways straight for
Pekin. They would see a little place on the map called Kalgan. At the
present moment, while public attention was directed to the Manchurian
Railway to Port Arthur, the more important railway, strategically and
politically speaking, was the direct line from the Siberian Railway to
Kalgan. He did not himself believe that the extraordinary expansion of
Russia in the Far East and in Persia was likely to be put a stop to by any
failure of the Russian people to follow out their destinies to the end. The
public in this country must not count upon any check in the activities of
Russia from her internal position. They must, of course, face the fact
that the development of Russia was, to some extent, an anti-British
development; and undoubtedly in Persia, and in Manchuria, and in