"معلومات عامة عن بلاد فارس لأي طبعة مستقبلية، ١٨٩٥" [و‎‎٢‎٣] (٢١١/٤٤)

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OUR TRADE WITH THE PERSIAN GULF. A^x
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^INCE the beginning of the present century, Persia, on ac-
O count of her proximity to India on the one side, and to
Russia on the other, has strongly attracted the political and
commercial regard of Great Britain. In this, as in other of our
later maritime and political developments in Southern and
Eastern Asia, the old East India Company showed a prescience
that to us must appear perfectly marvellous. The work they ini
tiated in those early days by the help of their small but most effi
cient Navy, whether in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, in
Bushire, Muscat, Aden and Zanzibar, or in the East Indian Ar
chipelago and the China Seas, is one that is still being
carried out, and must be yet further developed, if we wish
to retain our supremacy in the East and our command of its
markets. Of all these, probably, the work in Persia is of
the greatest political weight, besides being of consider
able commercial importance. Persian territory borders
our Indian Empire in Kabul and Beluchistan ; while, in the
North and West, it marches with Turkey and Russia. Peopled
by one of the most ancient branches of the Aryan family, it
is exceedingly fertile in parts, has a fine climate, boasts of
large cities, towns and seaports—these last on the Persian Gulf—,
does a fair amount of trade with India, China and Europe,
and has a history that stretches back to the days of Alexander
the Great, Cyrus, and the Pharaohs of Egypt. That it has
preserved its independence and native lines of monarchs
through so many thousands of years, amid the rise and fall of
dynasties and empires, tells much in its favour. It has its own
distinctive form of the Muhammedan religion, probably owing
to its non-Semitic origin, tolerant and allowing of progress, so
unlike the obstructive fanaticism of Turkey and Arabia ; and
it exists now one of the only two great Muhammedan States
In the world, and to Great Britain of even more importance
than Turkey. Besides marching with our Indian Empire,
Turkey and Russia, as already remarked, through its long
stretch of sea-board on the Persian Gulf, shares the Indian
Ocean with us. Held by a strong maritime Power, it would
dispute with us the supremacy of that Ocean, and would
imperil all our trade and possessions to the East of the
longitude of the Suez Canal.
In our latest political appointments in Persia—-of Sir Morti
mer Durand as Ambassador to Teheran, and of Colonel
Wilson, a tried Indian political officer, to the Persian Gulf—
we have shown a due appreciation of these important political