"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٤‎٨] (١٧٨٢/٣٩١)

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The chief disadvantages of the new system were that, owing to tlie
extent of the East Indian naval station and the relatively small strength
in ships of the East Indian Squadron, it frequently happened that no vessel
was at hand when required; that, calls upon ships from different quarters
being numerous, no vessel could remain long in one place ; that the officers
were, by traditions and training, less suitable for the performance of
political duties than their predecessors of the Indian Navy; and finally
that, as the officers and vessels belonged to a Royal instead of a local force,
their services could not be so freely requisitioned by the political authorities.
Her Majesty^s Government seem at first to have intended that the Political
Residents in the Persian Gulf and at Aden should be deprived altogether
of the use of vessels for general purposes, a change which the institution
and improvement of mail steamer services may have seemed to warrant, as
well as of control over the employment of vessels of war; and, though the
" Clyde " and " Hugh Rose/ ; two ships of the Bombay Marine which
partially supplied the place of the Indian Navy, were left provisionally in
the Persian Gulf, their withdrawal as soon as the laying of the telegraph
cables in the Gulf should have been finished, was contemplated.
In 1 864-, the Resident in the Persian Gulf reported that he had reason
for believing the slave trade to be still in full vigour, but that he no
longer possessed the means of dealing w T ith slaving craft.
In 1865, he observed that, while Government had expressly consti
tuted the holder of his office arbitrator in all difficulties arising among the
hiefs of the Arab coast, whether at sea or on land, he was in reality power
less to perform his functions in the absence of suitable means of locomo
tion ; that in the season of the pearl fishery, from April to October, when
disputes were frequent, the ships of the Royal Navy'were forbidden by the
standing orders of the Admiralty from cruising in the Gulf; and that the
Arabs would not be slow to take advantage of the Resident's inability to
move about, at will, with the result that the Gulf might in time become as
insecure as ever it had been in the past.
The operations against the Wahhabis at Qatif and Dammani were
undertaken in haste, with rather disappointing results, because H.M.S.
< Highflyer," the only vessel available, could not remain long in the Gulf.
The case also brought into prominence " the disadvantages under which
commanders of Her Majesty's ships cruising in the Persian Gulf labour
for want of officers acquainted with the local politics, the habits and
feelings of the maritime tribes, and the navigation of this difficult arm of
the sea. A remedy for the first difficulty was sought in the appointment
of two Political Assistants in the Bushehr Residency ; but it is obvious