'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.' [‎29v] (63/386)

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five miles south-east of Maskat, was inspected by the French officers. In Nov
ember 1898 it was announced in the “Journal des Deoats that a French
man-of-war had established a coaling station at Bunder Jisseh.
The French Government, while pursuing their ends directly in the matter
„ of the Hag and of a naval base, did not
influence * e fforts t0 i nG1 ’ eas0 ‘ ie neglect indirect means of increasing their
influence in the Per-ian Gulf. A Vice-Consul of French nationality had
alreadv been substituted at Maskat for a foreigner who formerly represented
French interests there, and in 1897 a French Vice-Consulate had been opened
at Bushire ; in 189J a French Consular agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. was established at Lingah in
charge of a native, and in 1901 a move was made for the mclus.on of the
Bahrein islands in the French Vice-Consular district o Busline. Attempts
were also made to obtain a footing in the Gulf for French commercial enter-
■prise In 1903 two French merchants endeavoured unsuccessfully to establish
themselves at Bahrein with the intention of taking part in the pearl fisheries
and in that year the General Secretary of the “ Comite de 1 Asm fran ? a.se
visited the Gulf on a commercial mission, m the course of which he m;ule a
protracted stay at Maskat and in Bahrein and tried, but without success, to
arrange a tour into Central Arabia. Meanwhile a scurrilous ]ouvna!istio
campaign against British interests in the Gulf was carried on by M. Goguyer, a
French arms dealer settled at Maskat, in the French and Kussian press ; and
violent attacks were made on British policy, by the medium of an Arabic
newspaper disseminated gratis throughout the Gulf and the rest of the Muham
madan world, of which the origin was in the end traced, beyond possibility of
doubt, to a consular official employed in the French Foreign Office at Pans.
Increasin', interest in the Gulf was also manifested by Germany, probably
a in connection with the Baghdad Kail-
German activity. wa y scheme. In 1899 the German war
vessel “ Arcona ” visited the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , probably with reference to tbe
question of a railway terminus. In the beginning of 1900 a German railway
commission arrived at Koweit overland from Constantinople and attempted to
negotiate with the Sheikh for the grant of a site on Koweit hay, but their pur
pose was defeated by the loyal adherence of the Sheikh to his secret agreement
with the British Government. A German Consulate had been founded at Bushire
in 1897, and in 1905 the German Consul made enquiries regarding the position
of German subjects in Bahrein. In 1899 a party of Germans arrived at
Bunder Abbas to study the situation there, and about 1901 a German firm
engaged in the mother-of-pearl trade established a business in Bahrein. In
1901^ moreover, Germany appears to have advised Persia to conclude a Com
mercial Convention, then under discussion with liussia, which was unfavour
able to British interests ; and in the same year information was received that an
influential German syndicate were negotiating with the Porte for a monopoly of
the pearl fisheries on the Turkish coast of the Gulf.
A small Belgian enterprise in the Gulf deserves mention as showing the
readiness of the Belgians to partici-
Beigian enterprise. pa te, if a profitable opening could be
found, in the scramble initiated by Russia and Prance. M. Simais, formerly
Commercial Attache of the Belgian Legation at Tehran and in 1901 Director-
General of the Persian Customs of the South, was undoubtedly interested in the
operations ; he had visions of a Belgian trading syndicate which was to estab
lish a bank in Persia and a line of steamers in the Gulf to compete with the
existing British institutions. Prospecting operations were carried out by the
“ Selika ”, a small Belgian steam yacht, which in the spring of 1901 remained
for about a month in the neighbourhood of the pearl banks ; hut soon after
wards M. Simais died and the Belgian project was apparently abandoned.
The policy of Britain in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and North-Eastern Arabia was in
T, T i . ... 1904 and 1905 vehemently denounced in
Pan-Iglanuc opposition to Britain. ., . • ii .-i f .c
the Arabic press, especially that of Cairo,
and strongly anti-British sentiments were soon after found to prevail among
the official class 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. . This journalistic campaign was probably