File 4535/1928 Pt 8 ‘ – PERSIAN GULF – QUESTION OF ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTECTORATES OVER KOWEIT, BAHREIN, MUSCAT, TRUCIAL COAST.’ [‎95v] (184/194)

Gulf, and I think that some explanation is required of my reasons for the suggestions
I have made.
2. Our interest in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. dates from 1616.
In 1615 it had been necessary to find markets for our surplus goods in the factory An East India Company trading post.
at Surat, and in 1616 the ship “ James ” sailed for Persia with a mission to Persia,
headed by Edward Connock, and with cargo.
The result was that in 1624- we established a factory An East India Company trading post. at Bunder Abbas. Thus
our first interest in the Gulf was purely commercial.
3. For the next 150 years our commerce was mixed with war either with the
Portuguese, Dutch or French, and our commerce sailed either in armed ships or
under armed convoys, and the factories we established in 1643 at Basra and in 1763
at Bushire were protected by military guards.
4. When the danger from European countries ceased, we still had the same
problem in guarding our commerce from the Arab pirates, chiefly the Jowasim, and
in the common interest of the Gulf we established a police of the Indian navy,
which had by this time been formed.
Thus in a despatch to Sir Henry Willock, dated the 3rd October, 1820, the
Bombay Government state :—
“You will be pleased to avail yourself of the earliest opportunity of
informing the Persian Government that as our views are exclusively limited to
the extirpation of piracy, it would be contrary to our policy, in the present state
of the Gulf, to afford the mediation we formerly offered between His Majesty
and the Utubis of BaFrein.”
5. In 1820-21 Sir Montstuart Elphinstone made the following note :—
“ On the other hand, all the officers—political, naval and military—who
have been employed in the Gulf, are of the opinion that without a station in
this part of the sea we shall never be able to eradicate piracy . . . .”
From this arose our station at Basidu, which we finally evacuated, mainly on
account of climate.
6. In 1822-23 the Governor of Bombay observed with regard to the charges
against Captain Bruce in connection with the treaty he had made : —
£; The object of the British Government was to preserve the peace of the
Gulf, as it was owing to the wars among the Powers who inhabit its shores
that the growth of piracy was encouraged.”
Thus, from 1820 to 1869, our policy was dictated by the suppression of piracy
and the prevention of wars of which piracy was a by-product. All our agreements
with the sheikhs of the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , Qatar and Bahrein, were to this end.
7. In 1869 we informed the Persian Government that—
“ The sole object of the British Government in holding the sheikhs (of
Bahrein) to these engagements were the prevention of piracy and the slave trade,
and the maintenance of the police of the Gulf—duties of which Great Britain
would gladly, if it were possible, divest herself in favour of Persia.”
Our interests were still those of commerce.
8. But in 1880 Russia began to take an interest in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and in
1881 established a Russian consulate in Bagdad.
From 1888 onwards the dominant note in political affairs in Persia was the
opposition existing between Great Britain and Russia, and there were indications of
a joint policy, adverse to Great Britain, on the part of France and Russia.
9. From 1894-99, as Lorimer says, was one of incipient movements gathering
force which were after its close to invest the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. with prominence. The
chief factors were the understanding between Russia and France, and foreign
schemes for a railway to connect the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
A fresh indication of the strategical importance attached by Russia to the straits
forming the entrance to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , was afforded by the journey of a Russian
engineer officer, who came by Kerman and Bunder Abbas to Hormuz in the spring of
1895; he remained for two days, made a survey of Hormuz, and at his departure
gave it to be understood that the island would be made a Russian coaling station.
10. This brings us to Lord Curzon’s Viceroyalty of 1899-1905.