"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٣‎٣] (٤٥٤/٧١)

46 HISTORY OF THE WAR : MESOPOTAMIA
losses, especially on the Madras side, while they were so numer
ous and powerful in the Persian Gulf that the Shah asked for
naval aid from Bombay. While these depredations were for
many years a source of anxiety to the British authorities, and
protective measures taxed to the utmost the limited naval
resources of the East India Company, it was not till the end of
the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries
that the lawlessness in the Persian Gulf reached its height.
Several of the East India Company’s trading vessels and some
of their cruisers had been attacked and even captured ; and
punitive measures had to be undertaken. No fewer 'than
three expeditions were necessary for the final subjugation of
these pirate tribes. In the last—that of 1819—a fleet of
twelve ships-of-war and over three thousand troops were
engaged. This long-drawn conflict, which was conducted
entirely by British agency and means, resulted in the establish
ment of treaty relations with the great majority of the Arab
chiefs (afterwards termed the Trucial Chiefs) under which they
bound themselves to abandon piracy against any nation
whatever, to observe perpetual peace, and to refer all disputes
to the British Resident at Bushire. The Pax Britannica,
which has ever since, with rare exceptions, been maintained,'
is the issue of these arrangements and is the exclusive work of
this country. Three results of capital importance have been
achieved by British intervention in the Persian Gulf: the
suppression of piracy * the cessation of war between the
Arab chiefs; and the approximate extinction of the slave
trade.
If England has become, in any sense, the arbiter and
the guardian of the Gulf .... it has 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
** هذه التواريخ تقريبية ** هذه التواريخ تقريبية * ** هذه التواريخ تقريبية ** هذه التواريخ تقريبية *
Although England . . . has at no time enjoyed, or
even asked for territorial acquisition in that region, she
has for centuries borne burdens there which no other
nation has ever undertaken anywhere, except in the
capacity of sovereign. She has had duty thrust upon
er, without dominion. She has kept the peace amongst
people who are not her subjects ; has patrolled, at intervals,