Page 102 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

06
At the mouth of the 8hat-el-Arab (hero is a
buoy laid down by tho British India Company,
but it is difficult to pick up, almost impossible at
night. It ought to be replaced by a lightship. Lightship off Shat-el-Arab.
At Bushirc there should be a light by the
telegraph station.
Quito apart from political considerations, lights Light at Bushire.
arc badly needed in the Gulf. Navigation there
is nttended with great danger at night, especially
siueo the speed of mail steamers has been
accelerated.

(d.) British Cables.
[Communicated by the India Office.]

General.
Tn a despatch dated the 21st September, 1899,
the Government of India wrote as follows:—
“During the last thirty years the maintenance
of the submarine cables of the Indo-European
Telegraph Department from Fao to Jask, and of
the land-lines from that place to Karachi, has
devolved upon the Indian Government, and has
tended to increase an already preponderant in­
fluence over both the waters and the shores of
this sea (i.e., the Persian Gulf).”
The following are the dates on which the
various lines between India and the head of the
Persian Gulf were completed :—
Mokran Coast land-line from Karachi
to Gwadur* .. .. .. April 1863
Cable from Gwadur to Fao, viA Cape
Musandim and Bushire .. April 8, 1864
[In January 1869 this cable wm
diverted from Cape Musandim to
Jask, whence it ran viA Eenjam
Island to Bushire and Fao.]
Cable from Gwadur to Karachi .. May 16, 1864
Land-line from Gwadur to Jask .. Aug. 16, 1869
Second cable, running direct from
Jask to Bushire, without touching
at Hen jam Island .. .. Nov. 1869
Cable from Jask to Muscat .. Nov. 25, 1901

• Gwadur, which lies some 60 miles on the British side of
the Persian frontier in Mekran, is Muscat territory. British
telegraphic rights there are covered by the Convention of
1865 with the Sultan of Muscat, quoted below in the soction
dealing with Muscat*