Page 307 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

Chapter XV. 277
495. Aftor some 'correspondence, which need, not bo quoted here, 8ir
pecr.iR, Juno 1904. No*. 600-623 (No. 620. A. H&rdingo referred Mushir-ed-Doivlali
Endoiuro No. 3.) to his note of 25th April 1903, from which
it would he seen that Lord Lansdowne, while expressing the inability of His
Majesty’s Government to issue any new orders to His Majesty's vessels, which
would restrict the efficiency of their action in maintaining tlio maritime peace
of the Gulf, instructed him (Sir A. Hardingc) to assure the Shah’s Government
that their Commanders would always bo careful to respect the sovereign rights
of Persia.
496. In regard to the piracy against the British Indian vessel Fateh-ea-
Selamut (No. 17 in the statement),
Ibid, No. 605.
Coloool Kemhall telegraphed on 9th
March 1904 that the pirates were reported to have come from Abkatch in
Klior Sindian and the stolen property was still there. Ho therefore proposod
to send a gunboat for searching the place.
497. The Government of India in reporting this to the Secretary of State
referred to Lord Lansdownc’s despatch of
Hid, No. COG.
4th April 1903 to Sir A. Hardingo, and
proposed to approve of the suggested action.—(Telegram dated 12th March
1904)
498. The Secretary of State telegraphed back on 16th March 1904
that instructions had been sent by the
Ibid, No. C07.
Admiralty to the Lapwing to proceed
without delay to Khor Hindian and search the place. The Lapwing visited
the place, but nothing could be traced.
499. Turning hack now to the Turkish side, we find that on 21st October I
1902 Lieutenant Armstrong, Senior Naval
Secret E., Juno 1903, Noi 242-264.
Officer, Persian Gulf, reported that the
Turkish authorities had two gunboats on the Shat-ol-Arab—one, tho Ki lul-el- I
La hr, had not moved from Basrah for months past, and the other, Zoliaf, had
been anchored to the southward of Lovasir Island and had not moved thence.
The report stated that the Zoliaf might do some little good by preventing
piracies close to where she was anchored, hut considering that a large armed
expedition started from Lora only a few miles below' where she wns lying,
her presence could not have much of a deterrent effeot except in her immediate
vicinity, and the Turkish guards on shore appeared equally unable to cope with :
the evil.
His Britannic Majesty’s Embassy admitted that, apart from the expedition
above mentioned, piracy, at the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, diminished during
the recent date exporting season, but they had good reason to suppose that this
result was due to the activity of the two British war-ships in those waters, and
not to the presence of the Turkish gunboats.

His Britannic Majesty’s Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf was of
opinion that the only method of effectually preventing piracy in the localities in
question, was the employment of armed steam-boats to patrol the river and bar
at uncertain times* and kept fairly constantly on the move. It was by thus keep­
ing his vessels moving, especially at night, that ho believed he had beon able
to prevent piracies of late, but he pointed out that row boats cannot catch
sailing dhows and heliums if there is any breeze, and that there are numerous
stretches of hanks round the mouths of the Shat-el-Arab and Bahmishor rivers,
whero sea-going ships cannot go, and where nothing, or very little, can be done
to prevent piracy without the use of fairly large steam-boats. He suggested,
therefore, that if tlic Turkish Government, instead of anchoring ships at fixed I
points, were to provido a fow such steam-boats, piracy could be stopped with
great ease:
!
500. Tho British A ubassador was directed by the Foreign Offioe. to call
the attention of the Porto to this matter
Ibid (No. 248, Encloiure No. 1),'
and to the observations and suggestions of
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