Page 186 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

2 REVIEW BY THE POLITICAL RESIDENT IN THE PERSIAN GCLF.

neither to seek nor support on behalf of British subjects, or subjects of a third
power, any commercial or political concessions north of a line starting from
Kasr-i-Shirin and passing by way of and including Kermanshah, Ispahan, Yczd
and Khakh, to the point of interjunction of the Persian, Russian and ’Afghan
frontiers. Similarly Russia enters into a corresponding engagement in respect
of a zone extending over South-Eastern Persia and the Perso-Afghan frontier by
way of and including Gazik, Birjand and Kerman to Bunder Abbas. *
It follows that the central tract lying between these zones of interest, includ-
ing the Persian littoral and islands from Bunder Abbas to Mohammerah, becomes
as it were a third zone of neutrality or disinterest; common ground, in which
the contracting parties claim for themselves no special privileges.
Two further articles safeguard the customs and other revenues pledged by
Persia as security for loans already made by the British and Russian Banks and
provide for friendly consultation in the event of financial difficulties requiring
the establishment of British or Russian control, respectively, over the sources
of those revenues.
Negotiations were concluded towards the end of the year for the assembly
of a second International Conference at
Assembly of Arms Conference at Brussels.
Brussels, for the special purpose of devis­
ing means of checking the growing trade in contraband firearms within the zone
covered by the Brussels Act of 1890. It is expected that the question of the
traffic in arms and munitions to and from Maskat, which has now reached such
dangerous proportions, will, be brought within the scope of the Conference which
is to assemble at the end of April 1908.
Great Britain is to be officially represented by Sir William Lee-Warner,
K.C.S.I., and Sir Richmond Ritchie, K.C.B., and two other officers, Major W. G.
Grey, Political Agent at Maskat, and Captain W. S. Bowman, R.N., lately
Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf, have been deputed by the Government
of India and Admiralty respectively so that their local knowledge may be at
the disposal of the British delegates.
The protracted negotiations connected with the interpretation and execu­
Conclusion of the French Flag Negotiations at tion of the terms cf the Hague Award
Maskat. in the French Flag case have at last been
concluded, and all that now remains is the publication of a notification by the
Sultan of Maskat informing his subjects of the results of the arbitration. His
Highness is greatly to be congratulated on the removal of an element of local
friction which has troubled the Maskat State for 20 years past.
This prudential measure of policy has been proceeded with to the utmost
Consolidation of our relations with the Ruler of during the year.
Koneit.
The above developments in the field of general politics seem collectively to
have created a definite stage or vantage-point in the history of British relations
with Southern Persia and the Persian Gulf, from which the ground covered of
late years can be reviewed and the best course for British policy to pursue
through the next stage can be conveniently scanned and determined. It can
hardly be doubted that His Majesty’s Government will use the juncture for this
purpose.
Since the conclusion of the Convention, Russian competiiion, commercial
and political, has decidedly slackened.
Rivalry of Foreign Powers. Some more water must necessarily flow
under the bridge before her local officials can purge their minds entirely of t e
leaven of bias and suspicion which the
Ru*‘ia' character of our past * national relations
had inevitably engendered, but there is no doubt that, whatever its u j*™***'
results may be, the first effect of the Convention has been to clear the c
considerably and to place the intercourse between local representatives
two powers on a more frank and healthy foundation.