Page 145 - The Persian Gulf Historical Summaries (1907-1953) Vol IV_Neat

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fair pretext for quarantine can always be found,
and through which the hulk of English as well
as the whole of Indian trade with Persia;
(3) sanitary, it being considered that the proposed
station, far from acting as a cheek upon disease,
would serve rather to spread that insalubrity
which it would he destined to prevent, by sub­
jecting the crews and passengers on the vessels
detained, the large majority of which would he
British, to the dangers of a pernicious climate
and unhealthy surroundings.
Dr. Thomson loft for ludia, on his waj to the
Gulf, in January 11)00. Ilis Report, which will
bo discussed hereafter, was submitted in the
following July.
The terms of the Persian “ Declaration Addi-
tionnelle” to the 1903 Convention (viz. (1) that
the station to he established at the entrance of
the Gulf in accordance with the Venice Con­
vention of 1897 should he under Persian, and
not international, control; and (2) that it should
be placed on the Island of Hcnjam, and not
Ormuz) were communicated by the French
Government to the British Ambassador at Paris
in December 1905, with an intimation that the
Persian proposals were favourably viewed by
them. These proposals did not commeud them­
selves to the British Government, partly on the
ground that any such arrangement would defeat
the object of the British reserves, viz., the post­
ponement of the scheme for a station at the
entranco of the Gulf, and partly because they
doubted the ability of the Persian authorities to
provide the necessary funds for the purpose.*
In regard to this \atter point, Mr. Grant Duff,
writing from Tehran on the 15th November,
1905, said that he did not think “ there is the
slightest prospect of the provisions of the Con­
vention, or any other sanitary measures, being
earned out, except in those ports whero the
quarantine arrangements are under European
control, so long as Persia remains under its
present Government.” The French Government,
however, continued to press the point, and in

• In bin dospatch of tho 27th April, 190C, to Sir F. Bertie,
Sir E. Grey wrote: “Tho unsatisfactory state of Persian
finances makes it hard to believe that that country would be
ready to incur tho necessary expenditure, and it would seem
clearly indicated that she is relying oa outside assistance, and
that the scheme may be said to have originated rather in
St, Pcteraburgh than in Tehran."
[363] F