Page 110 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

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Government to ignore it;” recent local inquiries
hnd materially affected this view of the Sultan’s
position, and it was therefore requested that
the Government of India “ will again take the
question into consideration in the light of the
further information now in your possession,”
and would inform His Majesty's Government of
their conclusions. It may be added that, apart
from Captain Lorimer’s “ local inquiries,” which
were alluded to in the despatch, the circum­
stances had been further modified, inasmuch as
the British •* Counter-caso ” in The Hague Arbi­
tration regarding Muscat had admitted tho
sovereignty of tho Sultan of Muscat in the
Musandim promontory.
On the 20th September, 1907, the Government
of India recommended that no further action
should bo taken in the matter, beyond leaving
the flagstaff on Telegraph Island where it is, and
this proposal is now under the consideration of
His Majesty’s Government.

Part IV.—CONCLUSION.
The political connection of England with the Mr. T. J. Benoottfi
paper (verbatim
Persian Gulf may be said to begin with tho ox tracts).
defeat of the Portuguese at Hormuz. The hieutoniint Low’s
Council at Surat came to an agreement with Shah indian^MarmB.”6
Abbas, and dispatched a fleet consisting of five 1 m'li
ships, which co-operated with the Persians in perui*.”
reducing Hormuz and compelling the Portuguese
to take refuge in Muscat. Their power had been
rudely shaken by their expulsion from Gombroon,
the modern Bunder Abbas, which had become an
important trading station on the main land op­
posite Hormuz; thisw’as followed by their expul­
sion in 1622 from Hormuz itself.
From this time the influence of the English
was steadily consolidated. On condition that
they maintained two ships of war in the Gulf to
safeguard navigation they were to receive half
the customs of Bunder Abbas, and their goods
were to be admitted duty free into that port.
Their position was, indeed, so far from being an
exclusive one, that a French and a Dutch factory
were established there lxjfofc the end of the reign
of Shah Abbas, who died in 162S. But it is clear,
nevertheless, that as time went on the English
did acquire an exceptional status in the Gulf, and
that at a very early period in the history of the