A very good copy of Dunn’s lecture on the Persian Gulf, foreshadowing events in the Eastern Theatre in the looming First World War.
Dunn was an active correspondent on affairs of the Middle East and one of the first members of the International Congress of Orientalists. As noted in the introduction, the lecture was of added interest given that the fifth Qajar shah, Muzaffar-ud-Din (1853-1907), passed away the night prior.
After perfunctory introductory comments about a nefarious Russia, Dunn then states “meanwhile, another danger to British Interests, as I think, has arisen in Turkey.” He believed that the Turkish Sultan, Abdul Hamid, was under the influence of the German Kaiser.
“[Germany’s] policy consists in the construction of the strategical railways, which will confer upon him a vested interest in the districts traversed by them. As is well known, the Sultan has granted Germany a concession for the construction of the Baghdad Railway from the shores of the Sea of Marmora to the Persian Gulf.” Germany had mooted that its preferred port was the then British-controlled Kuwait. Dunn dislikes the German strategy intensely, writing that “[Britain’s] preponderance in, not to say our mastery of, the Persian Gulf has been so complete and indisputable, that it comes with a shock to us to hear that any other nation seeks to dispute it with us.”
Having reiterated British claims to authority in the region, noting assistance provided to Muscat and the Sultan’s encouragement for the annexation of Bahrain, he demonstrates that Britain is the largest exporter to, and importer from, the Persian Gulf. He proposes that Arab tribes be supported against Ottoman Turkey and that India be persuaded to involve herself in the region so as to help protect British interests against both Germany and Russia.
The Berlin-Baghdad Railway - more properly Hamburg to Basra - travelled through modern-day Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. A line linking Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, was never completed.
Scarce: OCLC locates copies at Harvard, Wisconsin Madison, and BL, with one in Belgium and another in Vietnam.
