Page 25 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

the West, were not in the Gulf to minister to Westerners,

hut rather had come solely to work with and for the Arabs.

Theyhad already started to view themselves in many ways as

being part-’Iraqi, -Bahraini, -Kuwaiti, or -Muscati and suf­

fered alongside of these people as the tides of war flowed

backhand forth over the ancient battlegrounds of the Near

East.

Nevertheless, the fact that the Mission was identified

with the winning side in the "Great War" did nothing to hurt

its status in the Gulf. Although not actively solicited by the

Mission there were even some overt moves on the part of the

American and more especially British governments to support

missionary activity. Pood and medical supplies were delivered

as part of military supply shipments, and warships calling up

and down the Gulf would carry mail and packages back and

forth. Interestingly enough, the British, although they were

later to become somewhat suspicious of missionary activity in

Muscat as an American (and therefore un-British) activity,32

seem to have adopted the Mission as their own during the war

years. Even today, the Arabian Mission maintains very close

ties with the British as well as the United States diplomatic

representatives in the Gulf.

Towards the end of 1916, the British Resident in the

Gulf and Consul-General at Basrah, Sir Percy Cox, put a Royal

Navy sloop, HMS C1I0, at the Mission’s disposition to take

Reverend William I. Chamberlain, then Poreign Secretary for

the Arabian Mission in New York, and Dr. Stanley G. Mylrea