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CHAPTER IV.
General Policy in the Gulf, 1899-1903,
(1) Lord Curzon’s Despatches on the foreign activity in the Persian Gulf and
measures to be taken to maintain our interests.
131. We have enumerated above the several evidences of Foreign activity
in the Persian Gulf, of which we find increasing number at the advent of Lora
Curzon as Viceroy of India, and which threatened our old interests in many
quarters in the Persian Gulf and Oman. With the intimate knowledge His
Excellency came equipped with the forces in operation in the Gulf, there was
no chance of our interests being neglected in that quarter. The energetic
measures taken to thwart French intrigues in Oman and German and Turkish
intrigues at Koweit, and to strengthen our position in Bahrein form the subjects
of separate prdcis. Apart from this Lord Curzon’s Government set to take
a comprehensive review of the situation in the Gulf and Persia and suggest the
remedies, and their views and suggestions were set forth in an elaborate despatch
which marks an epoch in history of the Persian and Persian Gulf politics.
132. This is the Despatch No. !75*Sec.—Ext., dated 21st September 1899.
Adequate reason for it was found in the
SecretB., November 1899, Nos. io-xi»
fact that the Secretary of State in his
Despatch No. to-Sec., dated 30th June 1899, invited the opinion of the Govern­
ment of India on a despatch from Sir M. Durand, dated 12th February 1899,
in which be expressed his opinion on certain suggestions for the appointment
of Consular Officers in Persia and submitted his own proposals for maintaining
our interests in Persia and the Persian Gulf. Independently of this the Govern­
ment of India felt bound to address the Secretary of State on the subject.
133. The Despatch of September 1899 began by pointing out that there was
no clear definition of the principles upon
Lord Curion's Despatch 0! aist September 1899.
■which our policy towards Persia is based,
of the objects which It should keep in view, and of the scope and limits of the
respective shares, of responsibility, political and financial, which should be
assumed by the two partners, viz., Her Majesty’s Government and the Govern­
ment of India, who are jointly concerned in the defence of Anglo-Indian
interests in the dominions of the Shah. The need for such a discussion as to
how British interests should be definitely safeguarded in the future, and how
the necessary outlay should be shared between Great Britain and India was made
imperative by the existence of signs that the dissolution of Persia is -drawing
near. The rule of the present Shah is weaker than that of his predecessor, the
encroachments of Russian power are less veiled by any pretence of concealment,
and other Governments and nationalities are being attracted to the scene.
134. Anglo-Indian interests in Persia, the despatch continued, are commer­
cial, political, strategical, and telegraphic. The total annual valye of British trade
with Persia has been cautiously estimated at three-and-a-half millions sterling,
of which the south and eastern portion belongs to India, the north and western
more peculiarly to the British Isles.
135. The political interests of Great Britain in Persia, though in the main
Indian in inception, and. still largely Indian in character, are also Imperial,
now that Persia has been drawn into the vortex of European politics. Equally
is Persia in its strategical aspect not only an Indian but an Imperial con­
cern, when the boundaries of Afghanistan, guaranteed by Great Britain, march
for many hundreds of miles with Persia, when Persian territory is coterminous
with Baluchistan, and when pressing upon Persia is the ever-growing power of
the Russian Empire. The telegraphic interests of Great Britain in Persia are
evenly divided between the mother-country and India, the line from Tehran to
the North-West Frontier being in the hands of a London company, while from
Tehran onwards to the Gulf the undertaking is conducted by an establish­
ment recruited and paid for by the Government of India, although 30 per cent,
of the total traffic consists of messages between Great Britain and the colonies
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