Page 24 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

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posed that, in order to prevent any foreign flag
being planted in the harbours of the Musandim
Peninsula, lilphiustono Inlet should be rooccupicd.
It was suggested that tho best way of effecting
this rooecupation would ho to erect a flagstaff on
tho isthmus which commands Elphinstono and
Malcolm Inlets and on Telegraph Island, in the
former inlet. It was ulso proposed, on the ndvico
of the Admiral, that a flagstaff should be planted
on Sheep Island, in the anchorage of Khor Kawi,
ou tho western sido of the peninsula, which is
not only very commodious, but which might, it
was suggested, some day be useful ns a coaling
station.
In a Report dated December 1903 Rear-
Admiral Atkinson-Willcs had furnished details of
Khor Kawi: —
"The Khor appears capable of sheltering
several large cruisers besides a numhor of small
cruft. Its strategical position is excellent, and,
in conjunction with the Islands of Kishm,
Hcnjnm, Larak, and Hormuz, it will form a
strong position for the control of the entrance to
the Gulf.”
On the 2Gth November, 1901, the Viceroy
reported that, the flagstaffs had boon erected.
On learning that the flagstaff* had been erected
on tho sites in question, the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty demurred to the action which
had been taken. They formulated their objections
in the following terms:—
" My Lords cannot admit that tho fact of their having
offered no objection to tho proposal to rcoccupv Telegraph
Island by placing there a native Agent in charge of a
British (lag can l>e held to cover their unsolicited ac­
quiescence in the proposed further distribution of Hag-
staffs in the district, one being on the mainland.
“ The original proposal was simply a case of reverting
to a state of things which had previously existed without
question, to tho rcnowal of which there was a reasonable
answer in the oventof objections being raised by Kuropunu
Powers, and in which there could l>o no question of terri­
torial expansion, as the so-called island is nothing hut a
rock. As regards the oilier flagstaff*, it is a very different
matter, and my Lords felt that if the Hug wus not intended
to denote British territorial expansion, it not only meant
nothing, but was a possible source 'f international com­
plication/'
In view of this expression of opinion tho
question was submitted to the Committee of