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of the Anglo-French Entente. Far otherwise on our rearguards and given them an infinite was it in the East. The consolidation of French of trouble. Even when armed with a jezail authority in French Indo-China was the prelude and when every cartridge had to be husbanded to designs for the expansion of this authority with jealous care, the tribesman was a respectable

at the expense of Siam and to find compensation there for the veiled British protectorate of Egypt. There had earlier been mutterings in Burma. We were established in Lower Burma in the thirties and in the eighties the foolish and tyrannical King Theebaw, in Upper Burma, became an impossible neighbour, and ambitious Frenchmen were not averse to fanning his opposition to the British. However, if any hopes were entertained of extending the Asiatic possessions of France in this direction, they were dissipated by the Second Burmese War and the firm establishment of British rule. Far otherwise was it on the confines of Siam. It was the fixed purpose of British policy to preserve Siam as a buffer state between Burma, then a regular Province of the Indian Empire, and French Indo-China. This policy was definitely challenged by French encroachments on Siam. Matters approached a crisis in 1894, and we

antagonist. Now the tribesmen are everywhere armed with magazine rifles, either imported through the Persian Gulf when gunrunning was a thriving occupation, stolen from British magazines, or secured from Russian and Afghan sources. They have an abundant supply of ammunition. Considerable numbers of the fighting men have been trained in the ranks of the Indian Army, either as Regulars in the Pathan regiments, or else in the tribal militias. We found this to our cost in the events following the Afghan War of 1919. The Afghan regular army was of little account. The tribesmen who rose at the call of the jihad, especially in Waziristan, were of great account. They gave our troops the hardest fighting they have ever had on the Frontier; their marksmanship and fire discipline were described by experienced soldiers as admirable. The tribal militia, the keystone of the Curzon system, what was to take its place?

were within measurable distance of a situation had for all practical purposes disappeared;

which might have ended in open war between the two States. But as in the case of Penjdeh, and later when Major Marchand marched across Africa to Fashoda, the imminence of hostilities made statesmen on both sides ask themselves what they might be going to fight about. They found there was nothing essential and an agreement was negotiated between the two Powers, which secured the independence and integrity of Siam. That agreement has been consolidated by wise and progressive rule in Siam itself, under its own independent sovereign, who is imbued with a strong friendship for Great Britain, whilst at the same time main taining good relations with French neighbours. The New Frontier Problem. - The whole purpose of this brief sketch has been to show that for three generations-most assuredly since the events leading to the Afghan War of 1838the Indian frontier problem has never been a local problem. It has been dominated by external influences in the main the long struggle

brief

between Great Britain and Russia, for a period the German ambition to build up a dominant position in the East through the revival of the land route, and to a much lesser extent by the ambitions of France and Turkey. All these external influences have disappeared. There is no such prospect of their revival as justified us in taking them into consideration in the measures which are forced on the Governments responsible. The Indian frontier question hastherefore developed from an Imperial into a local question-a condition on which we must lay fast hold, because people are tenacious of old

Ideas, especially when they are nearly a century old, and no proper understanding of the present position is possible, unless our consideration of it

Immediately following the Afghan War, the frontier positions were garrisoned by regular troops, but this was only a temporary measure. It may be said that the crux of the situation was in Waziristan. This sector of the Frontier has always been the most difficult of the whole, because of the intractable character of the people. Besides, possessing a bolt hole into Afghanistan they had in the past evaded effective punishment. In view of the complete disappearance of the external menace, and the consequent lapsing of any necessity to preserve open lines of communication which would enable us to go to the support of Afghanistan now formally recognised in the Treaty of 1921 as a completely independent state, there were many who urged the desirability of complete withdrawal, even to the line of the Indus. This extreme school gained little support. Our position in Quetta on the one side and Peshawar on the other is fully consolida ted, and no good case can be made out for withdrawing from it. On the other hand, there was a strong case made out for leaving the tribesmen severely alone from the Gomal to the Kurram, and dealing with them if they emerged from their fastnesses. The military standpoint was that the Waziris are absolutely intractable; that it was unfair to impose on troops the frequent necessity of punitive operations in most arduous conditions; and that the only solution of the question was the occupation of dominant points in Waziristan, as far north as Laddha, and linking these posts with our military bases, and particular with

the termini of the Indian frontier railways, by good motor roads.

is governed by this essential fact, that the fron- This controversy has not ended yet; indeed tier question is purely local. But whilst these one feels inclined to say that it never will end. world changes were taking place, others were in It has resulted in a typically British compromise. progress which powerfully influence the difficul- The present policy has been aptly described ties of the situation. The tribesman was always as the "half-forward" policy. There has been an opponent to be respected. Brave, hardy, no withdrawal in the ordinary sense fanatical, he has always been a first-class of the term, but the limits of the 1.-THE PERSIAN GULF.

fighting man. Knowing every inch of the inhospitable country in which punitive operations must of necessity take place he has hung

Waziristan occupation have been fixed at Ramzak, not at Laddha. The network of consequential roads is being pushed forward. The Indian rail-head, which for so long terminated at Jamrud, at the southern entrance to the Khyber Pass, has now been extended to Landi Kotal and the frontier between India and Afghanistan. The regular troops have been withdrawn, and their place taken by khassadars. The difference between the khassa dars and the old tribal militia is material. The Militia were armed and equipped by the

Indian military authorities; if they disappeared they took their arms and ammunition with them, and constituted a powerful reinforcement. The khassadars bring their own rifles with them, and therefore if they desert they do not constitute any reinforcement to those in arms against us. Many of these khassadars have already done good work in the punishment of tribal raids.

From what has gone before it will be seen after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Agreement, that the keynote of this discussion of Indian and disappeared with the collapse of Russian frontier policy is that the external menace powerfollowing the Revolution. Then Turkey, has disappeared, and that it is now a purely either acting for herself, or as the avant courier local question. No part of the frontier is more of Germany, under whose domination she had powerfully influenced by this consideration passed, began to stir. She threatened the than the Persian Gulf. Our first appearance Sheikh of Bahrein by the armed occupation in the Gulf was in connection with the long of the peninsula of Al Katr, and moved troops struggle for supremacy with the Portuguese, to enforce her suzerainty over Koweit, the the French and the Dutch, who had established best port in the Persian Gulf and a possible 236

trading stations there. With the capture and destruction of the great entrepot which the Portuguese had established at Ormuz, the supersession of the land by the sea route, and the appearance of anarchy in the interior the importance of the Gulf declined. The Indian Government remained there primarily to preserve the peace. This work it quietly and efficiently performed. Piracy was stamped out, the Trucial Chiefs, who occupy the Pirate Coast, were gradually brought into close relations with the Government, the vessels of the Royal Navy kept watch and ward, and our consuls regulated the external affairs of the Arab rulers on the Arab coast. In return for these services Great Britain claimed no selfish advantages. The waters of the Gulf were kept free to the navigation of the ships of all nations, and though Great Britain could have made any territorial acquisitions she pleased she retained possession of only the tiny station of Bassidu. Left to herself Great Britain desired no other policy, but for a quarter of a century the Gulf was involved in European affairs. France sought to acquire a coaling station at Jissa, near Maskat, and obstructed the efforts of the British Government to stamp out the slave trade and to check the immense traffic in arms which was equipping the tribes on our land frontier with weapons of precision and quantities of ammunition. All causes of difference were gradually removed by agreements following the Anglo-French Entente. Russia sent one of her finest cruisers to "show the flag" in the Gulf, and established consular posts where there were no interests of preserve. She was credited with the intention of occupying a warm water port, and in particular with casting covetous eyes on the most dreadful spot in the Gulf, Bunder Abbas. This menace declined

terminus of the Baghdad Railway. Further to consolidate her interests, or to stake out a claim, Germany sent the heavily-subsidized ships of the Hamburg-America line to the Gulf, where they comported themselves as the instruments of Imperial policy rather than as inoffensive merchantmen. She also strove, through the agency of the firm of Wonkhaus, to acquire a territorial footing on the island of Shargah. These events stirred the Brit sh Government to an unusual activity in are waters of the Gulf.

Counter Measures.

The first effective steps to counter these influences were taken during the vigorous viceroyalty of Lord Curzon, who visited the Gulf during his early travels and incorporated a masterly survey of its features in his monumental work on Persia. He appointed the ablest men he could find to the head of affairs, established several new consulates, and was instrumental in improving the sea communications with the Gulf ports. The British Government also took alarm. They were fortified in their stand against foreign intrigue by the opinion of a writer of unchallenged authority. The American Naval writer, the late Admiral Mahan, placed on record his view that "Concession in the Persian Gulf, whether by formal arrangement (with other Powers) or by neglect of the local commercial interests which now underlie political and military control will imperil Great Britain's naval position in the Farther East, her political position in India, her com. mercial interests in both, and the Imperial tie between herself and Australasia." The Imperia standpoint, endorsed by both Parties in the State, was set out by Lord Lansdowne in

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words of great import "We(i.e., His Majesty's of the Trucial Chiefs are controlled by the Government) should regard the establishment of British Resident at Bushire, who visits the a naval base or of a fortified port in the Persian Pirate Coast every year on a tour of inspection. Gulf by any other Power as a very grave menace

to British interests, which we should certainly resist with all the means at our disposal." The negative measures following these declarations were followed by a constructive policy when the oil fields in the Bakhtiari country, with a great refinery, were developed by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, in which the British Government has a large financial stake. But with the disappearance of these external forces on Gulf policy, as set out in the introduction to this section, the politics of the Persian Gulf receded in importance, until they are now more than

The commercial importance of the Pirate Coast is increasing through the rise of Debai. Formerly Lingah was the entrepot for this trade, but the exactions of the Belgian Customs officials in the employ of Persia drove this traffic from Lingah to Debai. The Trucial Chiefs are-Debai, Abu Thabee, Shargah Ajman, Um-al-Gawain and Ras-el-Kheyma.

Bahrein,

North of the Pirate Coast lies the little Archi

they were before these external influences deve- of Bahrein. Of this group of islands only those

loped a local question, mainly a question of police. They are therefore set out more briefly and those who desire a complete narrative are referred to the Indian Year Book for 1923, pp. 178-183.

Maskat.

Maskat, which is reached in about forty. eight hours from Karachi, is outside the Persian Gulf proper. It lies three hundred miles south of Cape Musandim, which is the real entrance to the Gulf, but its natural strength and his torical prestige combine to make it inseparable from the politics of the Gulf, with which it has always been intimately associated.

pelago which forms the chiefship of the Sheikh of Bahrein and Maharak are of any size, but their importance is out of all proportion to

their extent. This is the great centre of the Gulf pearl fishery, which, in a good year, may be worth half a million pounds sterling. The anchorage is wretched, and at certain states of the tide ships nave to lie four miles from the shore, which is not even approachable by boats, and passengers, mails and cargo have to be handed on the donkeys for which Bahrein is famous. But this notwithstanding the trade of the port is valued at over a million and a quarter sterling, and the customs revenue; which amounts to some eighty thousand pounds, makes the Sheikh the richest ruler in the Gulf.

Formerly Maskat was part of a domain which embraced Zanzibar, and the Islands of Kishm is that it is a relic of the Phoenicians, who Brothers. This route provides the shortest pas sage to Ispahan and the central tableind, and already competes with the older route by way of Bushire and Shiraz. This importance has grown since the Anglo-Persian Oil Company established refineries at Muhammerah for the oil which they win in the rich fields which they have tapped near Ahwaz. Its importance will be still further accentuated, if the scheme for a railway to Khorremabad by way of Dizful matures. A concession for a road by this route has long been held by a British Company.

and Larak, with Bunder Abbas on the Persian shore. Zanzibar was separated from it by agreement, and the Persians succeeded in establishing their authority over the possessions on the castern shore.

The relations between Britain and Maskat have been intimate for a century and more. It was under British auspices that the separation between Zanzibar and Maskat was effected, the Sheikh accepted a British subsidy in return for the suppression of the slave trade and in 1892 sealed his dependence upon us by concluding a treaty pledging himself not to cede any part of his territory without our con

sent.

The Pirate Coast.

Turning Cape Musandim and entering the Gulf Proper, we pass the Pirate Coast, controlled by the six Trucial Chiefs. The ill-name of this territory has now ceased to have any meaning, but in the early days it had a very real relation to the actual conditions. The pirates were the boldest of their kind, and they did not hesitate to attack on occasion, and not always without success, the Company's ships of war. Large expeditions were fitted out to break their power, with such success that since 1820 no considerable punitive measures have been recessary. The Trucial Chiefs are bound to Great Britain by a series of engagements, beginning with 1806 and ending with the perpetual treaty of 1853 by which they bound themselves to avoid all hostilities at sea, and the subsequent treaty of 1873 by which they undertook to prohibit altogether the traffic in slaves. The relations

In the neighbourhood of Bahrein is the vast burying ground which has hitherto baffled archæologists. The generally accepted theory are known to have traded in these waters. Political Agent: Captain R. G. E. W. Alban.

Koweit.

In the north-west corner of the Gulf lies the port which has made more stir than any place of similar size in the world. The importance of Koweit lies solely in the fact that it is the one possible Gulf terminus of the Baghdad Railway. This is no new discovery, for when the Euphrates Valley Railway was under discussion, General Chesney selected it under the alternative name of the Grane-so called from the resemblance of the formation of the Bay to a pair of horns as the sea terminus of the line. Nowhere else would Koweit be called a good or a promising port. The Bay is 20 miles deep and 5 miles broad, but so shallow that heavy expense would have to be incurred to render i suitable for modern ocean-going steamers. It is sheltered from all but the westerly winds, and the clean thriving town is peopled by some 20,000 inhabitants, chiefly dependent on the sea, for the mariners of Koweit are roted for their boldness and bardihood.

Political Agent: Major C. C. J. Barrett, C.S.I.,

C.I.E.

Muhammerah.

On the opposite side of the entrance to the Shatt-el-Arab lie the territories of Sheikh Khazzal of Muhammeran. The town, favour ably situated near the mouth of the Karun River, has grown in importanca since the opening of the Karun River route to trade through the enterprise of Messrs. Lynch

Vice Consul at Ahwaz: Captain H. A. Barnes.

Basra.

In a sense Fasra and Turkish Arabistan can hardly be said to come within the scope of the frontiers of India, yet they are so indissolubly ssociated with the politics of the Gulf that they must be considered in relation thereto Basra is the inevitable sea terminus of the Baghdad Railway. It stands on the Shatt-elArab, sixty miles from its mouth, favourably situated to receive the whole water-borne trade of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The local traffic is valuable for the richness of the date groves on either side of the Shat tel-Arab is indescribable, there is a considerable entrepot traffic, whilst Basra is the port of entry for Baghdad and for the trade with Persia, which follows the caravan route via Kermanshah and Hamadan.

Sir Percy Cox has accordingly been authorised by His Majesty's Government to make an announcement at Baghdad, the terms of which I propose to read out to Your Lordships. This announcement was drawn up in consultation with King Feisal and his Government, and has their cordial assent. It is being published at Baghdad to-day.

The announcement is as follows:

"It will be remembered that in the autumn of last year, after a lengthy exchange of views, it was decided between the Governments of His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty King Feisal that a Treaty of Alliance should be entered into between His Britannic Majesty and His Majesty the King of Iraq. This Treaty, which was signed on the 10th October, 1922, and the term of which was to be twenty years (subject to periodical revision at the desire of either party) provided for the establishment of an independent Constitutional Government in Iraq. enjoying a certain measure of advice and assistance from Great Britain of the nature and extent indicated in the text of the Treaty itself and of subsidiary Agreements which were to be made thereunder.

"Since then the Iraq Government has made great strides along the path of independent, and stable existence and has been able successfully to assume administrative responsibility. and both parties being equally anxious that the commitments and responsibilities of His Majesty's Government in respect of Iraq should be terminated as soon as possible, it is considered that the period of the Treaty in its present form can conveniently be shortened. In order to obviate the inconvenience of introducing amendments into the body of a Treaty already signed, it has been decided to bring about the necessary modifications by means of a protocol which, like the Treaty itself, will be subject to ratification by the Constituent Assembly.

"Accordingly a protocol has now been signed by the parties in the following terms:

"It is understood between the High Contracting Parties that, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 18, the present Treaty is all terminate upon Iraq becoming a member of the League of Nations and in any case not later than four

The political destinies of Basra are at present wrapped up with the destinies of the new Arab State which we have set up in Mesopotamia under King Feisal. When the war was over we found ourselves committed to immense, undefined and burdensome responsibilities in that land. The sound concepts which dictated the original expedition were dislocated in the foolish advance to Baghdad; then the great military enterprises necessitated by the fall of Kut-al-Amara carried our frontier north to Mosul and the mountains of Kurdistan, east to the Persian boundary, and west to the confines of Trans-Jordania. Amongst ardent Imperialists, there was undoubtedly the hope that this immense area would be in one way or another an integral part of the British Empire. The cold fit followed when the cost was measured, and the Arabs rose in a revoit which showed that any such domination could only be maintained by force of arms and that the cost would be prodi gious. Under these circumstances King Feisal was imported from the Hedjaz and installed on the throne under theaegis of Great Britain. Still we were committed to the support of the new kingdom, and that most dangerous condition arose-responsibility without any real power unless King Feisal was to be a mere puppet, immense expenditure and indefinite military commitments. In these circumstances there was an insistent demand for withdrawal from the land. British policy moved slowly towards is that when the Treaty has been ratified His

that end, but a definite step was taken in 1923. The Secretary of State for the Colonies announced this policy in a statement which is reproduced textually, for the purpose of reference. Addressing the House of Lords on May 3rd he

said

Your Lordships will remember that the Cabinet have been discussing this matter for some time, and decisions have now been taken.

years from the ratification of peace with Turkey. Nothing in this protocol shall prevent a fresh agreement from being concluded with a view the High Contracting Parties; and negotiations to regulate the subsequent relations between for that object shall be entered into between them before the expiration of the above period."

It will be noticed that under this protocol the Treaty in its present form is to terminate on the entry of Iraq into the League of Nations or in four years, whichever may be earlier.

The position of Iraq as regards the League

Britannic Majesty will be bound under Article 6 to use his good offices to secure the admission of Iraq to membership of the League of Nations as soon as possible. His Majesty's Government will be in a position to take this step on the fulfilment of the two following essential conditions, namely, the delimitation of the frontiers of Iraq, and the establishment on a stable government in accordance with the Organic Law

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