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75
ernment of India proposed to invest him with a Consular rank. Major Cox then
proposed that the First Assistant to the Resident should also be invested
with Consular rank.
Sir A. Hardinge, who was consulted, agreed to the proposals, and suggest­
ed in the alternative that the officers of the Residency might be given a dip­
lomatic status, which would have the advantage of raising the prestige of the
Residency and of emphasising the fact that the functions of the Resident and
his staff are, unlike those of their foreign colleagues of diplomatic rather than a
Consular character, concerned, as they are not merely with the protection of
British trade and interests in Bushire and Fars, but with the political affairs of
the Arab States and indeed of the whole coasts of the Persian Gulf.
257-D. Lord Lansdowne was not prepared, as advised for the time being,
to grant diplomatic status to the officers in question, but saw no objection to
giving the First Assistant the rank of Consul and the remaining officers that of
Vice-Consul on certain conditions (Despatch of the Secretary of State, No.
44, dated 19th May 1905).
357-E. The Government of India concurred in the proposal to give
Consular rank to the officers in question, on the understanding that such rank
was local, that no allowance was attached thereto, and that it would give no
claim to further promotion or to future employment in the Consular service.
The only two officers at the Residency who did not exercise Consular powers were
Captain Trevors, First Assistant Resident, and Captain Condone, I.M.S.
Residency Surgeon. The former of these could be given the rank of
Consul and the latter that of Vice-Consul. The Government of India sug­
gested that the jurisdiction of both the officers should extend to Bushire and the
other parts of Southern Persia. They recognized that the proposal involved
some reduplication of Consular jurisdiction, but they thought it desirable that
there should be no room for questioning the status of either officer at any point
on the coast, whither he might have occasion to proceed in connection with his
political or sanitary duties (Despatch No. 125, dated 16th July 1905).
(xxxiv) Consular appointment at Bandar Abbas.

258. The necessity of the appointment of a British Officer at Bandar Abbas
was noted, as long ago as 1879, by Colonel Ross, at that time British Resident
at Bushire. It was raised again in 1882, 1884, 1885, 1888 and 1892, and on the
majority of these occasions was supported by petitions from the not insignificant
Hindu and Khoja population engaged in trade at Bandar Abbas. In 1893, the
Secret E., March 1893. Nos. 562*578. appointment as Vice-Consul of an English­
Secret E., November 1893, Nos. 568*581. man engaged in business at that port was
agreed to by the Government of India and was sanctioned by the Secretary of
State (Lord Kimberley), but was subsequently dropped upon the ground that the
estimated cost of Rs. 50 a month or ^40 a year could not be saved out of the
Bushire Residency funds. In 1896, the question was again discussed between the
Government of India and the Resident (Colonel Wilson) ; and the former so far de­
parted from their previous attitude as to say
Secret E., July 1896, Nos. 19-28.
that the proposal must be held over until
the normal condition of trade had been
Secret E., June 1891, Nos. 150-153.
restored by the withdrawal of the Russian’s
Sanitary Cordon (letter No. 912-E.A., dated 1st June 1897, t0 the Resident).”
259. In 1899 the Government of Lord Curzon in writing to the Secretary
of State in their Despatch No. 175, dated
Sectret E., November 1899, Nos. IO*II.
21 st September 1899, expressed the opi­
nion (paragraph 82) that these conditions the Government had since been fulfilled
and were prepared to look with a more favourable eye upon a proposal, the
intrinsic recommendations of which were not open to dispute.' They were
willing to accept the financial responsibility for the proposed appointment,
although they thought that it might be possible to meet it without additional
cos^ by the transfer to Bandar Abbas of the Political Assistant now stationed at
Meshed. Sir M. Durand had suggested that the officer appointed to this post
should pass the summer months at Yezd (Bandar Abbas being an impossible

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