"ملف رقم II/٩ مذكرات معلومات من إدارة الخارجية بخصوص شؤون الخليج الفارسي ومسقط والساحل العربي من الخليج الفارسي. نوفمبر "٠٧ - ديسمبر "٠٨" [و‎‎٣‎٧] (١٣٢/٧٥)

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in the forthcoming season. On the 14th
November 1907, His Majesty’s Secretary of
State for India telegraphed asking whether
any action was proposed with a view to exert
ing pressure on the local Sheikhs, a measure
which had been suggested in Mr. Lloyd’s
memorandum, and further requested the views
of the Government of India on the subject.
The Political Resident in the Persian Gulf,
whose opinion was invited, stated that
sufficient credit was not allowed to the
important connection which Messrs. Gray Paul
& Co. had always had with this trade. They
were the first European firm to take it up,
long before Mr. Wonckhaus came to the Gulf,
and had not in any way reduced their
operations.
It was true that Mr. Wonckhaus, who
migrated from East Africa to Lingah in 1898
or 1899, was enabled by the absence of close
competition there to build up the small but
prosperous business in shell export, which
enabled him four years later to extend his
operations to Bahrein and enter into competi
tion with Messrs. Gray Paul on their own
ground. The latter firm, however, had not
slackened their energies and expressed the
utmost confidence in their ability to hold their
own in Bahrein.
In regard to Lingah, there was a much
less satisfactory story to tell. Here Mr.
Wonckhaus had it all his own way from
the beginning. Messrs. Gray Paul’s reason
for refraining at the start from competing with
him at that port was that they calculated that
they could not run a satisfactory agency there
with a native representative, and that the trade
to be done there, whether in shells or other
commodities, was not sufficient to warrant
the expense of deputing a European. The
urgency of better representation had been
hitherto pressed upon them repeatedly without
avail, but they intended immediately to send
one of their superior staff there as an
experimental measure who would also have
the Trucial Coast within his heat.
As regards the obstructive or constructive
means to be employed for developing the trade,
Major Cox was of opinion that, beyond doubt,
if the demand could be created, the export of
shells was capable of great expansion; but
past experience of the demand, which had
fluctuated considerably, seemed to indicate
that it was not likely to develop much greater
proportions unless the Australian trade failed.
The object was therefore not so much to
increase British operations by opening new
channels, as to wrest some of the present
volume of trade from German hands.
As an obstructive measure, Mr. Lloyd had
suggested that influence be exerted upon the
Sheikhs of the Trucial Coast calculated to