THE GARTER MISSION. 337 



of British sovereignty in Asia to the dwellers on the 

 Persian and Arab littoral, supported by the guns and 

 turrets of British men-of-war. And the people, poten- 

 tate and pirate, peasant and pauper, saw, and, seeing, 

 they believed. Should any doubt be cast upon the 

 motive actuating the Viceroy's journey to the Persian 

 Gulf, the Indian Budget speech of March 1904 is on 

 record to dispel it : " This is the secret of the whole 

 position in Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet, . . . and 

 the whole of our policy during the past five years has 

 been directed towards maintaining our predominant 

 influence and to preventing the expansion of hostile 

 agencies on this area which I have described. It was 

 for this reason that I visited that old field of British 

 energy and influence in the Persian Gulf 



There was all the external pomp and circumstance 

 so necessary in impressing any particular lesson on the 

 tablets of an oriental brain, both in the Viceroy's tour 

 to the Persian Gulf and in the Garter mission to the 

 capital, — the former illustrative of the predominance of 

 Great Britain on the seas, the latter of the friendship 

 existing between the Governments of London and 

 Teheran. But there have been other incidents which, 

 though lacking the halo of public acclamation, — the 

 fanfare of trumpets and black-letter headlines being 

 absent, — are indicative of the intention of this country 

 to prepare for eventualities. 



In the gulf itself the suborned Turkish attacks upon 

 the independence of Koweit, by far the finest harbour 

 in those regions, were successfully defeated by the 

 prompt appearance upon the scene of British war-ships, 

 and the occupants of the two armed dhows which 

 swooped down upon the territory of the Sheik in the 

 dead of a September night (1902) were dispersed — 

 though not without the loss of a British bluejacket — by 



