Page 145 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

itairnm&J

17
fair pretext for quarantine can always bo found,
and through which the hulk of English as well
as the whole of Indian trade with Pcrsi".;
(3) sanitary. it being considered that the proposed
station, far from acting as a cheek upon disease,
would serve rather to spread that insalubrity
which it would be destined to prevent, by sul»-
jeeting the crews and passengers on the vessels
detained, the large majority of which would ho
British, to the dangers of a pernicious climate
and unhealthy surroundings.
Dr. Thomson left for India, on his wav to the
Gulf, in January 100G. His Report, which will
be discussed hereafter, was submitted in the
following July.
The terms of the Persian “ Declaration Addi-
tionnclle” to the 1903 Convention (viz. (1) that
the station to bo established at the entrance of
the Gulf in accordance with the Venice Con­
vention of 1807 should he under Persian, and
not international, control; and (2) that it should
be placed on the Island of Hen jam, and not
Ormuz) were communicated by the French
Government to the British Ambassador at Paris
in December 1905, with an intimation that the
Persian proposals were favourably viewed by
them. These proposals did not commend them­
selves to the British Government, partly on the
ground that any such arrangement would defeat
the object of the British reserves, viz., the post­
ponement of the scheme for a station at the
entrance of the Gulf, and partly because they
doubted the ability of the Persian authorities to
provide the necessary funds for the purpose.*
In regard to this [atter poiut, Mr. Grant Dulf,
writing from Tehran on the 15th November,
1905, said that he did not think “ there is the
slightest prospect of the provisions of the Con­
vention, or any other sanitary measures, being
earned out, except in those ports where the
quarantine arrangements are under European
control, so long as Persia remains under its
present Government.” The French Government,
however, continued to press the point, and in
• Id hia dospatch of tho 27th April, 190G, to Sir P. Bertie,
Sir E. Grey wrote: “The unsatisfactory state of Persian
finances makes it hard to believe that that country would be
ready to iucur the necessary expenditure, and it would scorn
clearly indicated that she is relying on outside assistance, and
that the scheme may be said to have origiuated rather iu
St, Polershurgh than in Tehran."
[303] F