Page 26 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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on a tour of the Mission's various stations in the Gulf.

Although the Arabian Mission was always verjr careful not to

ask for outside intervention on its behalf by the British or

American authorities,-^ it could not afford to turn down such

a generous and obviously well-intentioned gesture as this,

which gave unprecedented safe and speedy access to its visit­

ing officials. Likewise, although the Gulf rulers had already

partially adopted the missionaries as part of the local scene

and were no longer treating them entirely as outsiders, they

could not help but be impressed by the obvious show of strength

provided by missionaries arriving under the protection of the

guns of the Royal Navy.

Thus, in many ways, the Arabian Mission emerged from the

First World War visibly strengthened. The missionaries had

been able to alleviate the suffering of wounded soldiers on

both sides during the war and had demonstrated their practi­

cal usefulness for both Arabs and westerners to see. The

Western powers, increasingly aware of the economic and geo­

graphic importance of the Gulf area, had gone out of their

way to demonstrate support for the Mission's activities.

Perhaps most importantly, by overthrowing the Ottoman Empire,

installing the British in 'Iraq and Transjordan and the French

in Syria, the war had brought an end to a century of Middle

Eastern isolationism and made it impossible for Islamic society

to continue to ignore the enormous political, economic, and

social changes that were taking place ‘throughout the Western-

world. America, in particular, was viewed as a champion of