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'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.' [‎184v] (373/386)

The record is made up of 1 volume (189 folios). It was created in 1907. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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no
72
Memorandum by the Marquess of Lansdowne.
Foreign Office ;
21st March 1902.
The situation at Koweit is becoming more and more embarrassing, and the
time has come for looking it in the face.
IVe have saddled ourselves with an impossible client in the person of the
Sheikh. He is apparently an untrustworthy savage, no one knows where his
possessions begin and end, and our obligations towards him are as ill-defined
as the boundaries of his principality. We have distinctly announced that he
does not enjoy British “ protection on the other hand, we once made him a
present of i,000/., and promised him our “ good offices,” whatever that may
mean. When we made this promise we were, I feel no doubt, thinking of
Koweit proper, if there is such a thing, and not of Bubiyan or other out-skirts
over which the Sheikh has rights of one sort or another. We have up to the
present sheltered ourselves not unsuccessfully, during our discussion with the
Turks on the one side and foreign Governments on the other, behind the
plausible announcement that we desired to maintain the status quo in regard
to Koweit. But I doubt whether any one really knows what the status quo
is. We have, at any rate in my opinion, no right to tell the Turks that they
may not move troops for the purpose of putting down a rebellion in the Nejd
region, or that they must not look out for a suitable terminus of the Baghdad
Kail way for fear of disturbing the status quo.
If matters are left as they are, we shall involve ourselves in a very un*
satisfactory dispute. And we shall, as Admiral Bosanquet has lately pointed
put, be obliged to keep the squadron on sentry go at the head of the Gulf in
order to maintain the peace.
We might, it seems to me, explain (1) to the Porte, (2) to the Sheikh,
and (3) to the foreign Powers immediately interested the objects of our
policy.
I should be inclined to say that our engagements to Kowoit do not extend
beyond the district adjoining or close to the bay of that name, and to endea
vour to obtain the adhesion of the Porte and of the Sheikh to an approximate
definition of that district. It may be necessary to reconcile the Sheikh by the
payment of anot her 1,000^., or of an even larger sum.
1 would make it clear to the Turks that we do not want to stand in the
way of an arrangement under which the terminus of the line might be placed
at some spot other than Kovveit to their advantage if they can make anything
out of it.
As to the foreign Powers, I have already explained to most of them that
we are not going to oppose the Railway project, provided British Capital
receives a share at least equal to that of any other Power in respect of con
struction, management, and orders for materials, and I have added that while
we do not grudge a dehouche for international commerce in the Gulf, and
have no wish to make it into a British lake, we shall resist to the utmost all
attempts by other Powers to obtain a foothold on its shores for naval or military
purposes.
This, I take it, is the “ bed rock ” of our policy in the Gulf, and we shall
pursue that policy not in virtue of ambiguous understandings with local
Chiefs, but as the predominant Power in Southern Persia and in the Gulf:
the Power whose commercial interests in those regions far exceed those of
other Powers, the Power to whose efforts in the past it is due that the waters
of the Gulf are open to the trade of the world, and whose duty it will be in the
future to protect the new trade route. If it is understood that we have to be
reckoned with, whoever builds the railway, and wherever it finds a terminus
because w r e are that Power, we can regard with indifference the local intrigues
of any number of Sheikhs and Emirs.
Vide draft telegram herewith for your concurrence.
LANSDOWNE.

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Content

Printed at the GC [Government Central] Press, Simla.

The volume is divided into three parts: Part I (folios 5-47) containing an introduction; Part II (folios 48-125) containing a detailed account; and Part III (folios 126-188) containing despatches and correspondence connected with Part I Chapter IV ('The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ', folios 28-47).

Part I gives an overview of policy and events in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region during Curzon's period as Viceroy [1899-1905], with sections on British policy in Persia; the maintenance and extension of British interests; Seistan [Sīstān]; and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Part II contains more detailed accounts of selected topics, including sections on British policy in Persia, customs and finance, quarantine, administration, communications, and British and Russian activity in Seistan. The despatches and correspondence in Part III include correspondence from the Government of India in the Foreign Department, the Secretary of State for India, and the Viceroy; addresses and speeches by Curzon; and notes of interviews between Curzon and local rulers.

Mss Eur F111/531-534 consist of four identical printed and bound volumes. However, the four volumes each show a small number of different manuscript annotations and corrections.

This volume contains manuscript additions on folios 8, 11-12, 14, 42 (a sixteen word note concerning the use by the Shaikh of Koweit [Kuwait] of a distinctive colour [flag] for Kuwait shipping), and 62-66.

Extent and format
1 volume (189 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a list of Parts I-III on folio 4; a table of contents of Part I on folio 6; a table of contents of Part II on folio 49; and a table of contents of Part III on folios 127-129, which gives a reference to the paragraph of Part I Chapter IV that the despatch or correspondence is intended to illustrate.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 191; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'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.' [‎184v] (373/386), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/534, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100070118030.0x0000ae> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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