Note 25 — Chapter XXIV · STATISTICAL AND POLITICAL

“The preservation, so far as it is still possible, of the integrity of Persia must be registered as a cardinal principle of our Imperial creed.” “I should regard the concession of a port upon the Persian Gulf to Russia by any power as a deliberate insult to Great Britain, as a wanton rupture of the status quo, and as an intentional provocation to war; and I should impeach the British Minister, who was guilty of acquiescing in such a surrender, as a traitor to his country.” “It (i.e. the aggression of Russia upon South Persia and the Persian Gulf) can only be prosecuted in the teeth of international morality, in defiance of civilised opinion, and with the ultimate certainty of a war with this country that would ring from pole to pole.”—Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, London, 1892, vol. ii. pp. 603, 605, 465. May I, as a traveller, take the present opportunity of contributing my mite of gratitude to Lord Curzon for this considerable work? ↑