'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎46v] (97/384)

the chief of Gaih ; but it is difficult to discriminate with certainty between the
results of this redistribution and those of the general internal disorganisation
which began in 1897 ami 1ms since increased rather than diminished. The new
distribution had at least the effect of adjusting benehts in a more correct
proportion to responsibilities.
In 1901 Mir Mahmud Khan, brother of the chief of Dashtyari with whom
he was at war, entered on a course of hostility against the British Government;
he raided a number of villages in the neighbourhood of Chahbar and carried off
cattle belonging to British Indian subjects and to the British telegraph station.
In 1902 the British Legation remonstrated with the Persian Government on the
condition of affairs in Mekran, hut the admonition passed unheeded; the
Persian officials continued to prey unchecked on the chiefs, the chiefs in their
turn to ravage tlnur own territories and even to sell their subjects into slavery,
and the people at large to become impoverished and to emigrate. In 1901
Mir Mahmud Khan "spontaneously assumed a more correct attitude towards
the British Government and was in the end recognised as joint ruler with his
brother of the Dashtyari district ; hut general lawlessness and oppression
c mtinued unabated.
Meanwhile the settlement of British pecuniary claims was proceeding,
though slowly, being delayed at first by the apathy of the officials whom the
Persian Government deputed to represent them, and by the obstructiveness of
the local chiefs without whose aid nothing could he accomplished. In 1899
and 1901 meetings took place between British and Persian officials and a
number of the outstanding cases were settled, but disposals did not keep pace
with the occurrence of fresh cases, and in 1901 the value of the unsettled
claims reached Bs. 82,000. In this year a third meeting of British and Persian
representatives was arranged at which eases to the value of Ks. 58,000 were
decided In 1905 a fourth meeting was held and at the end of the year the
balance of claims undisposed of was Bs. 83,000.
Political review of the period.
We are now in a position to estimate the results attained in the Persian
Gulf during Lord Curzon’s tenure of office. Attacks on the ascendancy
of Great Britain in the Gulf had begun with the visit of a Russian
surveyor to Ilormuz in 1895, but they did not become serious until 1898,
when the French attempted to establish
a naval base in Oman. Great impetus
was given to foreign rivalry by the Transvaal war of 1899-1902, especially
during its earlier stages when an erroneous anticipation of the future
position of Britain obtained general currency ; and these years accordingly wit
nessed preparations by Russia for establishing a naval station in the Persian
Gulf and for constructing a railway across Persia to the sea, as well as the
foundation of a Russian line of steamers and trading company and intensified
efforts by the French to push their influence in Oman. There were at the same
time unmistakeable symptoms that, in the Gulf, Russia and France were
actuated to some extent by a common policy. The manifestations of foreign
activity were accompanied by displays of naval force and were attended by a
general expansion of the Rus4aa and German consular establishments in the
Gulf region.
As, however, the British Empire gradually and without loss of stability
emerged from the South African difficuRy a revulsion of feeling appeared to set
in ; the more dangerous enterprises of Russia were suspended ; and eventually
little remained to differentiate the situation from that which had existed before
the crisis except the considerable mercantile undertaking to which the Russian
Government had committed themselves and the increased consular establish
ments of that Power and of Germany. By the end of 1903 the tension in the
Gulf had completely relaxed.
The assault on British predominance had been energetically met and
repelled at every point; nothing ha 1 been conceded even at the time
when the state of international polities was most favourable to the
adversaries of Britain ; and British activity continued unabated for a while
after the causes which had provoked it were withdrawn. The strategical posi
tion was examined from the Indian point of view and dispositions were made for