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SECRET.

I.

NOTE BY THE SECRETARY.

IN the attached letter and Memorandum the Foreign Office have drawn the attention of the Committee of Imperial Defence to certain acts of Turkish aggression at various points in the Persian Gulf, which might in certain circumstances call for retaliatory measures on the part of His Majesty's Government. Committee to consider "what form local action in the Persian Gulf by His Majesty's They wish the Government had best take, what measures would be required of the Indian and Imperial naval and military forces, and what effect such action would be likely to have on Great Britain's position in Egypt and India, and on her prestige in other Mahommedan

countries.'

2. The attention of the Committee is drawn to the Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence on the Bagdad Railway, Southern Persia, and the Persian Guif, dated the 26th January, 1909, which contains a map, an index, and a good deal of information regarding the places mentioned in the Foreign Office Memorandum.

2, Whitehall Gardens, SW.,

April 6, 1911.

II.

LETTER FROM THE FOREIGN OFFICE TO THE SECRETARY TO THE COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

(Secret.) Sir,

Foreign Office, March 6, 1911.

1 AM directed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to you a Memorandum which has been prepared in this department on the subject of Turkish aggression in the Persian Gulf.

I am to request that you will be so good as to cause this paper to be circulated to members of the Committee, and that you will arrange for a discussion by them of the questions raised therein.

III.

I

am, &c.

LOUIS MALLET.

MEMORANDUM CONCERNING TURKISH AGGRESSION IN THE PERSIAN

GULF.

(Secret.)

1. Koweit.

THE only act of aggression taken by the Turks as regards Koweit is in connection with the Sheikh's Fedhagia property. This is a large estate on the Shatt-el-Arab. purchased by the Sheikh about two years ago for £T. 48,000. On previous occasions when the Sheikh has bought land in Turkey, he has had no difficulty in registering the transactions in the local land office. In the present case. the Office has refused registration unless the Sheikh enters himself as an Ottoman subject. This, acting on the advice of the British agent at Koweit, he has hitherto declined to do.

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