File 978/1917 Pt 1 'Mesopotamia: administration; occupation of Baghdad; the proclamation; Sir P Cox's position' [‎83v] (171/402)

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improbably, strong resentment. India has long been bound and must always
remain bound to Mesopotamia by strong religious ties. Her commercial
interests in Mesopotamia were considerable even before the war, and now that
India has shed her blood in the conquest of Mesopotamia a large section of
her population is looking forward consciously or unconsciously not merely to
a very material development of those interests, but to securing in Mesopotamia
a definite field for employment and expansion. It is clearly imperative that
on the one hand nothing that can be avoided should be done to embitter this
disappointment, and on the other that we should do everything in our power to
mitigate it by compensations elsewhere. Any form of restriction on the free
and natural emigration of Indians into Mesopotamia whether for pilgrimage or
trade or other lawful purposes would inevitably arouse a storm of resentment
far stronger, and we may add far more legitimate, than any resentment
evoked by the restrictions imposed on their entry into the Dominions, and
would be calculated to raise the cry that India had been used as a catspaw
for the conquest of Mesopotamia. Partly therefore to divert emigration as far
as possible into other channels and partly to satisfy in another form India’s
natural and legitimate expectations, we strongly urge that a definite field for
expansion may be found elsewhere. Such a field as we have already suggested
in our Despatch No. 85 (Secret—War), dated 29th September 1916, would
possibly be found most suitably in East Africa, and if German East Africa
is to remain a British possession we earnestly hope that arrangements may
be made not only to allow the free entry of Indians into it but to afford them
special facilities for the establishment of settlements and the acquisition of
land on reasonable terms.
10. It should, we think, be made clear that if India is to have no share
in the administration of Mesopotamia, the trade which has for so long existed
between the two countries shall not suffer by the separation. Indian traders
will naturally wish for an es open door ” into Mesopotamia, and, if this
cannot be assured to them, we assume that the treatment accorded to Indian
trade and industry will be at least as favourable as that received by any other
portion of the British Empire. Further in the interests of Indian traders and
artisans as also of Indian pilgrims, it would be desirable that an officer of the
Government of India should be posted to Basra and perhaps also to Baghdad
to advise the local authorities and communicate when necessary with the
Government of India.
11. The administrative changes in the Gulf and at Aden now in con-,
templation will certainly cause some uneasiness at the outset to the Sheikhs
of Koweit, Bahrein and Katr, the Sultan of Maskat and Bin Sand, and in a
lesser degree to the Arab chieftains under the control of Aden. But an
opportunity will doubtless be afforded us to explain the matter to them in
suitable terms through our officers, and there seems no reason for apprehension
that any uneasiness they may feel at the change will be otherwise than
transitory.
12. A more important consideration is the need for ensuring that the
division of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. into an Arabian and a Persian sphere, each
under a separate control, will involve no loss of co-ordination in our Persian
Gulf policy. These are two main aspects in which this consideration presses
jtself insistently to notice. There is first the possibility, indeed the probability #