IOR/L/PS/10/23

The volume comprises correspondence and other papers relating to the erection (and subsequent abandonment) of flagstaffs at the head of the Persian Gulf, on the Maklab [Maqlab] Isthmus at Musandam (Musandam spelt with numerous variations throughout the file), Telegraph Island [Jazīrat al Maqlab], and Sheep Island [Jazīrat Umm al Ghanam].

The correspondence includes:

• a report of the Viceroy of India’s tour of the Persian Gulf in 1903, dated 21 January 1904 and signed by several individuals (including George Nathaniel Curzon and Horatio Herbert Kitchener) containing proposals for the erection of naval bases, coaling stations, and telegraph facilities in the Gulf (ff 213-215);
• proposals and arrangements for the erection of flagstaffs by HMS Sphinx in November 1904, made by Major William George Grey, Political Agent at Muscat, Lieutenant William Henry Irvine Shakespear, Assistant Resident and Acting British Consul at Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās], Captain Thomas Webster Kemp, Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf and Commander of HMS Sphinx, including reports submitted by Shakespear and Kemp describing the erection of the flagstaffs, including accounts of the discussions held with the inhabitants of the areas around which the flagstaffs were erected, and a map indicating the location of the flagstaffs (ff 112-114, 119-121);
• questions of whether to fly the Union Jack or Blue Ensign on the flagstaffs;
• Government concerns that the flagstaffs were situated in territory claimed by the Sultan of Maskat [Muscat];
• Admiralty objection to the flagstaffs, on the grounds that it would be the Navy’s responsibility to protect them;
• the decision of the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) to maintain the flagstaff at Telegraph Island, but abandon the flagstaffs at the Maklab Isthmus and Sheep Island;
• further reconsideration of the proposal to fly a British flag on Telegraph Island, in the wake of investigations by John Gordon Lorimer which assert the Sultan of Muscat’s sovereignty over Musandam;
• deferral of the decision on the flagstaff at Telegraph Island until the outcome of the Hague Tribunal on vessels at Muscat flying the French flag; the removal, in October 1905, of the flagstaffs on the Maklab Isthmus and Sheep Island;
• final instruction from the Foreign Office to the Government of India, in May 1908, that the remaining flagstaff on Telegraph Island should be no longer maintained.

The file also includes a report of the survey of Khor Kawi [Khawr al Quway‘] by HMS Sphinx, dated 31 December 1903, with a map showing water depths in Khor Kawi (ff 190-192), and a letter from the Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station, Vice Admiral George L Atkinson-Willes, to the Government of India, dated 5 September 1905, recommending that Khor Kawi be used as a new British naval base, rather than Elphinstone Inlet or Telegraph Island (ff 34-35).

The volume includes a divider which gives the year that the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained in it arranged by year. This divider is placed at the front of the volume (f 3).