Handbooks Prepared Under The Direction Of The Historical Section Of The Foreign Office Persian Gulf French And Portuguese Possessions No 76 81 PDF Download

In preparation for the peace conference that was expected to follow World War I, in the spring of 1917 the British Foreign Office established a special section responsible for preparing background information for use by British delegates to the conference. Persian Gulf is Number 76 in the series of more than 160 studies produced by the section, most of which were published after the conclusion of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Chapter I discusses physical and political geography, dividing the littoral of the Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf) and the adjoining Gulf of Oman into three regions: Arabian Coastal Region; Head of the Gulf; and Persian Littoral. Chapter II, on political history, provides a brief history of the Gulf States to 1914 and of European activity in the Gulf. The territories covered are specified as Muscat, Trucial Oman, El-Katr, Bahrein, Hasa, Koweit, Irak, South Arabistan, Persian Coast and Islands, and Persian Makran. Chapter III considers social, political, and religious conditions. The appendix contains the text of two important treaties: General Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf (1820), and Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity agreed upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast (1853). The analysis strongly emphasizes the "peculiar interests" of Britain in the Gulf and the special relations between Britain and the states of the region. The study concludes: "The freedom of the Arabs from foreign domination has been promised, and should in some form be assured. It is imperative that their relations with the British Government should be maintained unimpaired, and that Great Britain should continue, as hitherto, to perform her especial duties and to retain complete ascendancy in the Persian Gulf."