Page 48 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

PART II—CHAPTER XI.
30
considered from this point of view, nor did any radical change in this view have
place, unless for the suppression of piracy, by the detachment of a squadron of
the Indian Navy.
3. When l arrived in the Gulf-in November. 1863, the Government sum­
marized its estimate of its interests on the following paragraph, thus evincing a
desire to curtail and withdraw, rather than to extend, in this direction ; and this
apparently on economic grounds:—“ It appears to His Excellency the Governor
in Council that British interests on the Persian shores of the Gulf will be am ply
represented by the appointment of a Political Resident at Bushire with
Consular powers in lieu of a Resident and Assistant Resident. The reduction
of the Indian Naval Establishments in the gulf will relieve the Political Officer
stationed at Bushire of most part of his duties as a disbursing officer, and the
post of Treasurer to the Residency (Rs. 120 per mensem) can be abolished,
the Accountant being entrusted with the reduced duties in addition to his own.”
4. Yet events have shown that precisely from that period our interests in
the Gulf line have taken an unexpected and unprecedented start. Trade, which
in 1846 was represented in the gross by somewhat under half a million sterling,
is new upwards of five millions. The
To and from Bombay, Madras, and
Calcutta .. ... £ 3.000,000 Resident, whose duties were assumed to
To and from Batavia, Singapore, be limited to British interests on the
and Mauritius ... ... £ 1.500,000
To and from Kunachee and Red Persian shores of the Gulf, has been
Sea, &c. ... £ 500,000
shown to find his heaviest and most
Grand total £ S,000,000 responsible duties on the Arab Coast.
The abolition of the Assistant Residentship
has entailed on the Resident those travels which might otherwise have devolved
22nd February to 33rd March 1(63, on the Assistant, to the end that periods
*sth inly 10 10th September i86r as per margin have been passed by me
$2Z£XI,n°"y ,86* i" ‘J* °P<=" °" boardship. The reduction
ist November to93rd December 1864. of the Indian Navy Establishment, which
5«Ul»'h^°3^dhAp.VMt6yS- was_ regarded simply as relieving the
i*th October to aut December 1865, and from Resident as a disbursing officer, has, in
fact, given him no option other than to
persuade by moral and individual power 1,500 miles-of predatory constab tribes,
who had previously been coerced, or lawless at will. The Treasury Department,
relieved of the Naval disbursements, has received those of the telegraph and
other miscellaneous items. The Consular powers with which it was proposed to
endow the Resident were found to be inadmissible under our Treaty engagements
with Persia; and in point of fact there is not, in so far as I am informed, any
Legislative Act or Resolution of Government which would bear me out in the
exercise of any magisterial authority, or in the practical execution of my engage­
ments as Arbitrator of the Maritime Truce. Simultaneously with your telegraphic
development, the postal and steam communication opened up, and steam, as
usual, was followed by increased traffic of goods and passengers. The cotton
crisis in Bombay gave a sudden excitement to the export of cotton in Persia,
which suddenly increased a hundredfold. It was further found out here that, if
opium could pay a duty of Rs. i,6ooachest in Bombay, Persia could lay
it down of an equally good quality and free of duty; hence a trade through Batavia
with China sprung up. The vast cultivation of cotton in our own provinces seems
to have decreased; the growth of corn the littoral of the Gulf found it could
supply us: hence a recent corn trade. Meantime Russia has been pushing on
from the northward telegraph lines, and other European speculations have been
contemplated or executed; and all these material effects of civilization are
accompanied by European Agents, whose manners and customs awaken thought,
and with increased vitality inoculate Asiatic despotisms with increased irritation.
The general result at the present moment is comparative restlessness, inquisitive­
ness, and what we should term radicalism, requiring on the part of all authorities
concerned a watchfulness and s:ate of preparation, which would have been
premature so long as these regions remained in a condition of social and political
stagnation. This is the drift of my argument.
5. On the other hand, I am sensible of the forcible argument which might be
advanced in favour of the English Government abstaining from foreign relations