‏"ملخص الأحداث والتدابير الرئيسية التي اتخذها سمو نائب الملك اللورد كرزون من كيدلستون، نائب الملك والحاكم العام للهند في إدارة الخارجية. ‏I‏. يناير ١٨٩٩-أبريل ١٩٠٤. ‏II‏. ديسمبر ١٩٠٤-نوفمبر ١٩٠٥. المجلد IV. بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي." [و‎‎٣‎١] (٣٨٤/٦٦)

48
complications with Persia. It was also laid down by the Government of
India that no Persian official should be allowed to reside in the liritish station
without the express consent of the British Government.
The great inlets of Khor Musa and Khor Abdullah at the head of the Gulf,
though they lay beyond the field of the British strategical problem, were
also examined with a view to ascertaining
Khor Musa and Khor Abdullah. fhoir sorvieenhleness to foreign Powers;
the former was regarded as an outlet of which Bussia might desire to possess
herself, and the latter was important as affording a possible terminus for the
projected German railway via Baghdad to the Persian Gulf. In the case of
Khor Musa the land approaches to the inlet were also examined^ and reasons
were found for thinking that, in certain circumstances, British interests also
might be served by its existence. In 1904 Lord Curzon, in two separate des*
patches, placed all the considerations relating to Khor Musa and Khor
Abdullah before His Majesty’s Government.
The full discussion of the strategical question entailed numerous surveys
which added considerably to what had previously been known of the hydro-
J graphic features of the Persian Gulf. In
Naval surveys. 1900 preliminary reports upon a number
of the principal harbours and anchorages were submitted by the Senior Naval
Officer. In 1903, with special reference to Russian designs, a survey was
made by Commander Somerville, an officer deputed from England, of the
w hole Persian coast w ithin the Gulf and of part of the coast of Persian Mekran.
The Naval Commandcr-in-Chief also, who accompanied Lord Curzon on his
Persian Gulf tour, drew up a report on all the harbours and anchorages visited.
A rough survey w r as made of Khor Musa in 1903 and of Khor Abdullah in
1904, and in 1904 the sanction of His Majesty's Government was obtained for
a detailed survey of Khor Abdullah. Be sides these more important operations
a survey w as made in 1901-02 of the w aters betw een Bahrein, Hasaand Katar;
and before Lord Curzon left India arrangements had been made for a thorough
examination of a new approach to Bassidorc, round the south-west corner of
Kishm island, w^hich was used by the Viceroy during his tour in the Gulf.
"While the question of permanent dispositions for naval action in the Gulf
was attentively studied by the British and Indian Governments, the important
matters of ordinary organisation and of
Briiish naval organisation. niateri el and personnel in time of peace
were also brought under examination. Under an arrangement expiring in
1906, in consideration of the payment by the Government of India of an
annual subsidy of £100,000, four vessels of the Royal Navy, of which two were
cruisers and two were gunboats, had been placed at the disposal of India lor special
service in local waters; but in theory only one of these was affected to the
Persian Gulf service, the remainder being properly stationed elsewhere. In
practice, however, it w as found that one vessel w r as insufficient for the work
of the Gulf, and from 1897 to 1902 the number of ships normally employed in
Gulf w aters was either two or three ; one w as required to check piracy at the
head of the Gulf in the date season, another to police the pearl banks and the
shallow 7 waters round Bahrein, and the third to patrol the seas between Mask at
and Bunder Abbas. In 1902, with a view to supplementing the deficiency in
the number of ships and, more particularly, to providing an additional
vessel adapted to check the smuggling of arms oversea from the Arabian
to the Persian coast, Lord Curzon proposed that an armament should be
placed on board the R.I.M.S. “ Lawrence,” the despatch boat of the
Bushire Residency ; in this suggestion, however, the Secretary of State lor
India was not disposed to concur, partly on account of certain technical, diffi
culties and partly because another proposal, advanced by the Admiralty,
appeared likely to meet the requirements of the case. r J ho Admiralty scheme,
w hich w as agreed to by Lord Curzon’s Government in 1903, consisted in the for
mation of a flotilla of three gunboats for permanent service in the Persian Gulf
and it was brought into efl'cct in October 1904 ; it involved the replacement of
the two large and two small vessels hitherto supplied in return for the Indian
subsidy by three vessels, all of which were small; but the increase of suitable