Page 503 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

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Arabia, the Gulf and the West

ridiculous, their personal conduct repugnant, their administrations feeble and
corrupt. A few earnest souls thought that Middle-Eastern societies and

governments might possibly be regenerated by the application of Western
political and economic specifics; others hoped that their rehabilitation might

be accomplished through the agency of Islam, reformed and reinvigorated.
Most Europeans acquainted with the ways of Middle-Eastern governments,
however, regarded them as incorrigible, even though they were generally at

pains to conceal this belief beneath layers of diplomatic politesse.
What then has happened in recent decades, we may well ask, to cause the

derangement we now see about us, wherein the statesmen of the Western world
scurry from one dusty Middle-Eastern capital to another, to attend anxiously
upon our latter-day bashaws and beglerbegs, sultans and amirs, soliciting their
indulgence, sympathizing with their complaints and listening gravely to their

counsel? It cannot be that the nature of Middle-Eastern rulers and
governments has changed, rendering them less corrupt, capricious or absurd,
more worthy of the respect and approval of Europe. The cast of vizirs, sultans

and sharifs may have altered and new props been brought upon the stage; but
the play remains the same - a tragi-comedy of despotism in countless acts. Nor
has any striking reversal taken place in the balance of power between Europe
and the Middle East such as would justify the exaggerated deference which

some European governments - notably those of Britain and France - now pax
to polities of the stature of Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Persia. It is not
enough to ascribe this deference to the issue of oil supplies and the financia

problems generated by excessive oil prices. The process of appeasement began
a good half-century ago, with the lowering of Europe’s standards of judgement
in treating with the major and minor states of Asia and Africa, and it as

continued at an ever-accelerating pace over the past three decades.
What lies behind Europe’s changed attitude to the countries of the i

East is basically a loss of nerve. No longer does Europe possess the con enc^
to treat these countries in a manner consonant with its own importance
their relative insignificance. No Middle-Eastern state, least of all any 0 1 °
bordering on the Gulf, is the peer of any of the major powers of Europe, an

is simply ridiculous that Europe should take their pretensions as serious
does, even to the point of jeopardizing its own economic and po 1Uca

being. For this is, in effect, what Europe has done by acquiescing i
presumptuous claims of Persia, Saudi Arabia and the other u r|ty
exclusive control over the Gulf’s waters and sole responsibility or t e s nds

of its oil reserves. It is not sufficient to justify this acquiescence on t ® tates tQ
that Persia and Saudi Arabia were actively encouraged by the nite ^een
arrogate to themselves the guardianship of the Gulf. Whatever may gufope

the determinants of American policy in this instance, the interes case>
and the United States in the Gulf region are not wholly co^uep * d mUch

Europe has had a far longer acquaintance with the Mi e