Page 50 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953
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                    under existing circumstances, the.conclusion of
                    n Treaty ns proposed would he inopportune.
                      It was decided that the question should bo
                    submitted to the Commilteoof Imperial Defence,
                    who do not appear to have recorded any definite
                    opinion.
                      In a Minuto da tod the 5th February, 1905,
                    Lord Lansdowno wrote as follows:—
                    • "I feel strongly that the time has come when
                    all these questions should be considered, not as
                    we have been in the habit of considering them—
                    piecemeal and as they arise—but as parts of a
                    Persian Gulf policy, the principles of which
                    should bo carefully laid down for our guidance.”

                                (e.) The lYuhnbees.
                      To appreciate the present political conditions
                    and recent history of Arabia it is necessary to go
                    hack to the year 1712, which marks the riso of
                    the remarkable Wahabce movement, which was
                    at the bottom of all the political changes that
                    the peninsula has seen since that time.
                      Colonel Polly alluded to tho subject in tho
                    following terms:—
                      “ It i9 this Nejd power, occupying the wide
                    centre of Adnan Arabia, and composed of
                    nomadic or only partially stat ionary Arab tribes,
                    some now in revolt and some now used for
                    quelling revolt, that threatens or dominates all
                    round the shore-lino from the back of the
                    Euphrates and Shnt-el-Arab, down ulong the
                    Pirate Coast, and thenen round Cape Musandim,
                    along Muscat, Oman, to Ras-el-llad, on the Adcu
                    line.
                     “It was a Kazec or Mullah of Bussorah,
                    named Wahab, who (or whose son), permeating
                    these tribes with the ractamorphic agency of a
                    religious idea, fused them into an aggressive
                    mass, which, cropping out along the shore-lines
                    of Muscat and tho western coast of the Persian
                    Gulf, compelled all these subdued tribes into
                    plunder and piracy, lienee the once notorious
                    appealanco of the maritime Arabs as pirates;
                    hence our expeditions to the west coast of tho
                    Gulf ; and hence the Itas-el-IChciinahs and Beni-
                    bu-Alis blending with our colours. An Arab
                    Sheikh endeavoured to explain to me the nature
                    of this unenduring Waliabee power by likening
                    it to the agency of Lord Clive in conquering
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