‏"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." [و‎‎١‎٧‎٢] (٣٨٤/٣٤٨)

85
6. We enclose, for your information, the recent correspondence on this
subject noted in the schedule annexed.
42
India. Office, London,
9th September 1904.
Secret,
No. 41.
To His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor-General
of India in Council.
My Lord,
With reference to the letter from the Government of India, No. 77*
^ _ . _ , (Secret—External) of the 31st March last,
•To Foreign Office, dated 18th May 1904. i - ,
From ditto, dated 18th July 1901, and enclosures. I forward llGrCYNltll a COpy Of correspond"
To ditto, dated ifith a usu*t 19( 4. ence with the Foreign Office on the
From ditto, dated 29th August 1904. i • i. i* xu i x i i
subject of the proposal to conclude a pro
tectorate treaty with Sheikh Ahmed-bin-Thani of El Katr.
2. Your Excellency will observe that His Majesty’s Ambassador at
Constantinople regrets that a further question should be raised with the
Turkish Government at the present moment, when there are already other
matters of importance under discussion between the Porte and His Majesty’s
Government, and that he does not consider that the conclusion of the proposed
agreement with Sheikh Ahmed is warranted by the delay of the Turkish Govern
ment in cancelling the Mudirate at Wakra. It appears, however, from
His Excellency’s despatch of 28th June 1904, that he considers that such an
agreement might he justified to the Turkish Government, on the ground
that its object is to give His Majesty’s Government the right to restrain foreign
interference in El Katr, without attempting in any other way to disturb the
status quo, so far as the Turkish Government is concerned.
3. The decision, therefore, depends upon the question whether the objects
to be attained by the proposed agreement are of sufficient importance to
counterbalance the suspicion and ill-will which it would be calculated to
arouse in the minds of the Turkish Government. The El Katr coast at present
constitutes a break in the continuity of our maritime influence along the
shores of this part of the Gulf, lying as it does between the island of Bahrein
and the Pirate Coast. The absence of any agreement with the Sheikh may
prove, in certain contingencies, a hindrance to the proper exercise by His
Majesty’s ships of their duties in the suppression of piracy and the maintenance
of the peace of the Gulf. It also presents ^ difficulty of considerable impor
tance from the point of view of the protection of the pearl-fisheries fiom outside
interference, to which reference is made in your letter under reply.
4 The argument which Sir N. O’Conor bases on the multiplicity of points
in the Persian Gulf, regarding which he is simultaneously pressing the
Ottoman Government, is of some weight, and it seems doubtful whether the
considerations referred to in the second part of the preceding paragraph^ are of
such immediate and urgent importance as to justify immediate action m spite
of his reluctance to add at present to his difficulties with the Tutkis i iio\em
inent.
5 I shall therefore await a further expression of your views by telegraph
before authority is given to you to conclude an agreement with Sheikh
Ahmed, even with the precautions and reservations suggested by bir
N. O’Conor.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant,
ST. JOHN BROHRICK,