TALE OF A CITY 62 f. one report states that new revolvers, rifles and ammunition are common in the interior. g. Intensive Persian propaganda is in progress, and in fact I now have the name of some of the Persians living on the coast who are supposed to be implicated. The object of this propaganda is to impress the Shaikhs and the people with the fact that the English are now impatient and that the Persians have some mysterious source of power which will enable them to free the coast from British interference. 5. if it were not for Oil and the air route down the Coast we could take all these fairly cooly but as things are we certainly cannot. I do not think it will be denied that air communications with India are vital both in peace and war, and that it is essential to ensure that the weak link on the Trucial Coast does not map. I believe also , although I acknowledge it is only a personal option, that the existing and potential oil resources of the Persian Gulf will be vital to the Empire in the event of war. it follows that we cannot permit the Trucial Coast to become a secret base for hostile operations and equally under-developed oil resources as there may be along the Trucial Coast and in the hinterland should be controlled by British interests . Such as one may allow for natural antipathy on and behind the coast towards the increasing impact of British interests, I feel that there are too many coincidences, too much animosity towards us and too much unnatural agitation of truculent nature for us to continue to believe that there are no outside hostile forces working against us or that we can continue to “muddle along» as we have done hitherto. Our prestige is dangerously low and Shaikhs openly speak of His Majesty’s Government’s pronouncements as “wind”. 6. I am far from believing that it is necessary or even desirable for us to interfere actively in the internal affairs of the Trucial Coast Shaikhdoms. Yet at the same time, it is of immediate importance to take definite steps to re-establish our somewhat insecure position on this coast. I suggest that it is time to outline a clear-cut policy which will take account of the main desiderata which I have mentioned in paragraph .5. Our prestige must be revived and for that purpose I believe that not only should we show by more frequent patrolling of the coast that we have power, but also we should have a reasonable amount of money to reward services rendered, to buy service and to pay for information. Finally our local representation must be more effective. 7. this latter point I regard as of paramount importance. In dealing with affairs on the Coast, in considering our negotiations with the Shaikhs and notables and in
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