Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎134r] (268/879)

Paper to be read before the Indian
Section of the Society of Arts,
Thursday, May 8th, 1902.
• $
THE PAST AND PRESENT CONNEC
TION OF ENGLAND WITH THE
. PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
BY Thomas Jewell Bennett.
I need scarcely claim for the subject of the
present paper that it has at all events the
quality of actuality. An important debate in
the House of Commons on an amendment to
the Address in reply to the Speech from the
Throne ; a discussion now of many months’
standing in newspapers and reviews; a number
of papers read before various learned societies ;
and now and again telegrams from the near
East recounting “excursions and alarums”
in and about the locus in quo—all these have
. given to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and the interests of
Great Britain therein the status of a living
question, of present day importance. In
bringing it to the notice of the Indian Section
of the Society of Arts I am constrained to
observe certain limitations of space and sub
ject. The temptation is strong to wander pro
miscuously over the very interesting field of
the past relations of England and the East
India Company with Persia at large—relations
which began as far back as in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, if not earlier—and which in
more modern times take their place in the
history of the struggle between France and
England for dominion in Asia. I must avoid
this temptation, just as I must resist the
inclination to deal fully and directly with
such important subjects as the commercial
rivalries of England and Russia in Persia;
the means whereby England is to make
sure of retaining in the southern provinces
an influence commensurate with that which
Russia has acquired in the northern ; the
bearing upon British interests and policy
in the Gulf of the promised appearance in
that region of Germany as a railway maker.
One is, of course, prompted by recent dis
cussions to enter upon inquiries connected
with the designs of other Powers which, if
effect should be given to them, would change
the aspect of the Gulf question, and in the
belief of many competent authorities
would substantially act upon the balance of
power in Asia, and modify, in a sense at once
onerous and dangerous for England, her
position as an Asiatic Power. But, although
it will be impossible altogether to evade con
siderations of this order, only a secondary place
must be given to them. I have to remember
the constitution of this Society, which does not
aim at giving facilities for excursions in political
speculation, and which imposes upon those
whom it invites to a place upon its rostrum
something more than a bias towards the
objective treatment of the subjects which they
handle.
British Ascendency a Question of Fact.
The condition, as it happens, is by no means
an irksome one in this instance. A Minister of
the Crown, in answering a question concerning
the attitude of the British Government in the
affairs of the Gulf, said, at the opening of the
present session of Parliament, that ‘ the ascen
dency of Great Britain in the Persian Gulf”—
which he declares to be the foundation of British .
policy—was “ not merely a question of theory,
it was a statener. of fact;” and as such it
will be dealt with to-day. A prominent French
man, in objecting to the position of England in
that part of the .world, declared, some years
ago, that she had, without a shadow of right,
constituted herself the general arbiter and
guardian of the Gulf. It is precisely this
description of our status—which appears to
represent a view -widely prevalent abroad—‘
that challenges disproof. The disproof that
history affords is direct, emphatic, and con
vincing. If Efigland has become, in any
$ sense, the arbiter and the guardian of the
Gulf, as M. Deloncle, the leader of the
French Colonial party, says she has, it has
i not been through a restless ambition urging
her on to the control of the waste places of the
earth, but in obedience to the calls that have
been made upon her in the past to enforce
peace between warring tribes, to give a free
course to trade, to hold back the arm of the
marauder and the oppressor, and to stand
between the slave-dealer and his victim.
The Nature of British Claims in
the Gulf.
: 1 ‘ * i
We have had to listen occasionally—always
I trust with respect—to the claims of neighbour
nations to a position of preference in certain
regions, which are based upon historic associa
tion. The claims of France in the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. , for
example, while they are of a somewhat platonic
kind, have at least this justification, that they
are traditional, and, if mainly sentimental, have
a certain prescription in their favour. Only the
other day a distinguished member of the
Senate claimed for France “a moral patrimony
of glory and grandeur ’ ’ in that region. But in
the case of England and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
the position is unique. Although England—
beyond two brief occupations of the island of
Karak, and the use (between—+838-and +879) of
Bassadore, on the island of Kishm, as a station
for cruisers—has at no time enjoyed, or even
asked for territorial acquisitions in that region,
she has for generations borne burdens there
which no other nation has ever undertaken
anywhere, except in the capacity of sovereign.
She has had duty thrust upon her, without
dominion. She has kept the peace amongst
people who are not her subjects; has patrolled,
at intervals, waters over which she has enjoyed
no formal lordship ; has kept, in strange ports,
an open ‘door through which the traders of
every nation might have as free access to
distant markets as her own. These efforts,
and the sacrifices by which they were accom
panied, are forgotten by our neighbours when
they ask us by what right England flies her
flag somewhat higher than others in the Gulf;
they are forgotten, too, by Englishmen who
have been urging lately that we should buy
an understanding with another Power by in
viting that Power to plant itself upon the waters
whose peace'we have kept.