Page 112 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

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Tho sorvico that Great Britain rendered to
humanity by preservin'' tho peace ot' tho Gulf
during the nineteenth century has already been
indicated. It found formal embodiment in the
maritime truce at Hint imposed upon the warring
Chiefs on tho coast in 1833, renewed from time
to time, and made perpetual in 1853. In her
cllorts to put down the Slave Trade Great
Britain had no help from any other Power.
Mow extensive it was may bo gathered from tho
fact that in tho early thirties tho annual imports
of slaves into Kurrachoe alono amounted to
between 700 and 800. The work of polic*ng
tho Gulf may be lass arduous than it was in
old days, but the spirit of piracy is latent, and
a break in the continuity of British vigilance
would be followed by a return of the old dis­
orders. The beneficial effects of our past policy
in this regard are frequently seen in the manu­
mission at the Consulate of Muscat of slaves
claiming their freedom under Sir Bartle Erere’s
Treaty of 1873. #In ono other noteworthy respect
Great Britain has contributed in a very sub­
stantial degree to the peace of the Gulf and the
countries adjacent — in the help which the
British authorities, political and naval, have
given in the repression of the Arms Traffic.
The predominant position which Great Britain
has gradually acquired, and the policy evolved
from the rights and obligations upon which that
predominant position rests, are forcibly demon­
strated in a series of official despatches aud public
statements included in the records of the past
half century. From these a selection of three
has been made, viz., an extract from a despatch
from the Government of India, written in 1870
aud entirely approved by the Duke of Argyll as
Secretary of State for India; a declaration made
by Lord Lansdowne in the House of Lords in
1903; and a despatch from Sir E. Grey to His
Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg!!, dated
August 1907.

L
“ Apart from tho positive engagements which
we have contracted with the Arab Chiefs, and
from which it is neither possible nor desirable
that we should recede, the present is not a time
when we can encourage tho revival of old and
* The subject of “ Quarantine ” is dealt with in a separate
Memorandum.