مذكرة عن احترام المصالح البريطانية في الخليج العربي. [و‎‎٢‎٣] (١٢٦/١١)

L9
Imperial Defence, and their decision was con
veyed to the Government of India in a despatch
dated the 19th May, 1903. It was to the effect
that the hoisting of flags was open to the
objection that it would not confer upon this
country any special rights in the places selected,
unless it were accompanied by a specific pro
clamation of protectorate or annexation. On the
other hand, an open assertion of British claims
to these places might excite the jealousy of
other Powers, and give rise to political com
plications. His Majesty’s Government preferred
to adhere to the alternative method of making it
clear that they would not tolerate the occupation
by any foreign Power of any port or territory in
the Persian Gulf, and, in this connection, atten
tion was directed to Lord Lansdowne’s declaration,
made in the House of Lords on the 5th May,
1903, that “ we should regard the establishment
of a naval base or of a for tified port in the Persian
Gulf by any other Power as a very great menace
to British interests, and we should certainly
resist it with all the means at our disposal.” In
these circumstances, His Majesty’s Government
had arrived at the conclusion that the flagstaft's
on Sheep Island and the Maklab Isthmus should
be abandoned, while, in view of the result of
Mr. Lorimer’s recent inquiries, which tended to
confirm the claim of the Sultan of Muscat to
sovereignty over the territory in question, the
Government of India were requested to furnish
their views as to the maintenance of the flagstaff
on Telegraph Island, which had been the site of
the original cable station.
The Government of India replied in their
despatch of the 26th September, 1907, that the
flagstaff might conceivably be useful in certain
circumstances, having regard to the German
desire for an increase of influence in the Gulf,
and for a telegraph line to the east; and as
neither the Sultan of Muscat nor any foreign
Power had ever taken exception to its existence,
it seemed very improbable that any inter
national complications would arise from its
maintenance in the future. The Government of
India had already given it as their opinion that
the erection of the flagstaft could not be regarded
as contravening, in any way, the provisions of
the Treatv of 1862, which binds both England
and France not to trench on the independence of
the Sultan of Muscat; and, in these circum-