Editing Percy Cox (section)

==Political Resident in Persian Gulf (1904–1919)==
In June 1904, Major Cox was appointed first British Acting Political Resident in the [[Persian Gulf]] and Consul-General for [[Fars province]], [[Lurestan]] and [[Khuzestan]] and the district of [[Bandar Lengeh|Lingah]], residing in the Persian side of the gulf at the city of [[Bushehr]]. He began a remarkable correspondence and friendship with [[William Shakespear (explorer)|Captain William Shakespear]], appointed Cox's deputy Political Resident to Persia. Their frank exchange of views at [[Bandar Abbas]] was a major element of pre-war policy in the near east. Cox considered peace the priority, in the maintenance of good relations with the Ottomans, who held all the tribal loyalties, whilst prompting India to change policy towards [[Ibn Saud]], the [[Wahhabism|Wahhabi]] ruler of [[Najd|Nejd]] and later king of [[Saudi Arabia]], from 1906{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}.

One of the few allies was [[Mubarak al-Sabah|Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait]], whose shared intelligence eventually aided the desert war. Cox was assiduous with his briefs: he prepared in great detail, in fluent Arabic, when he wrote Shaikhs. Warned by the former ambassador to Constantinople of Turkish escalation; preparations were made to make Arabian friends. British forces were called into [[Bushehr]] in 1909, and then again to [[Shiraz]] in 1911. Cox promised [[Khaz'al Khan al-Kaabi|Sheikh Khazal of Muhammarah]] that troops would protect when the Turks threatened to invade. Khazaal leased the Shatt al-Arab waterway on the Euphrates to the [[Anglo-Persian Oil Company]] for the construction of refineries. In 1910 Cox wrote a full report on Shakespear's findings to India, which was passed to London.<ref>Shakespear to Cox, 8 April 1911, PRO, TNA</ref> He was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel in February 1910. Cox promoted trade in the Persian Gulf which doubled between 1904 and 1914, suppressed the [[Arms trafficking|illegal arms trade]]; and improved communications. In 1911 he was created a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]. In 1908 oil fields were discovered in the region of [[Abadan, Iran|Abadan]].  On 16 July 1909, after secret negotiation with Cox, assisted by [[Arnold Wilson]], [[Khaz'al al-Ka'bi|Sheik Khaz'al]] agreed to a rental agreement for the island including Abadan.{{sfn|Ferrier|1991|pp=641–642}}{{sfn|Greaves|1991|pp=418–419}}{{sfn|Abrahamian|2008|p=56}}{{efn|1=The agreement gave £1,500 per year and £16,500 in gold sovereigns to the Sheik.{{sfn|Abrahamian|2008|p=56}}}}

He was confirmed as Resident, a post which he occupied highly successfully until 1914, when he was appointed Secretary to the [[British Raj]]. Cox feared reprisals in Arabia would make the tribes turn towards Germany. But the [[Foreign Office]] was engrossed with events in Europe.{{sfn|Blunt|1920}} Among his other achievements while at Bushire was the establishment of the state of [[Kuwait]] as an autonomous [[kaza]] within the [[Ottoman Empire]] by the [[Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913]], where he improved relations with local ruler, Mubarak, by opening negotiations with Ibn Saud.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}<!-- all dates were provided; but have since been deleted -->

The Turks signed a treaty in London on 29 July 1913 concerning Royal Navy patrols in the Persian Gulf littoral, when Cox met then at the [[Uqair|Port of Uqair]] on 15 December 1913. Cox noted their "intractability" and also warned the Foreign and Commonwealth Office about [[Ibn Saud]]; the "increased authority of the [[Wahhabi]] Chief".{{sfn|Philby|1952| p=34}} Captain Shakespear's letter had passed via [[Riyadh]] to the Suez Canal in which his secret War-camp negotiations with Ibn Sa'ud, had revealed the latter's deep hatred of the Turks, who brutalised his people and threatened his ancestral rights. Shortly after his return to India, Sir Percy was sent back to the Persian Gulf as Chief Political Officer with the [[Indian Expeditionary Force]] when [[World War I]] broke out in August 1914, still with a brief to prevent Turkish entry on the German side. The Islamic Jihad to crush the British and seize [[Mesopotamia]] coincided with Turkey's declaration of war in October 1914.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Ibn Saud's mortal enemy, [[Ibn Rashid]], was in the Turkish coalition. Cox sent his deputy to protect Ibn Saud, whose army was attacked at the [[Battle of Jarrab]] on 19 January 1914. Shakespear was in command of the artillery when he was charged down and killed in the melee. Sir Percy received immediate authorisation to draft a [[Treaty of Khufaisa]] with the Wahhabi ruler with the aim of forming a broader Arab alliance.{{sfn|Philby|1952| p=41}} By April 1915 Cox was based at Basrah where he received a significant Treaty between Ibn Saud and his enemy Ibn Rashid; partition of Arabia in a spirited alliance to rid the peninsula of the Ottomans.{{sfn|Darlow| Bray|2010| p=207}} They finally met on Boxing Day 1915 at Darin, an island of Tarut, in the bay of Qatif, just north of Bahrain, where they signed the [[Treaty of Darin]].<ref>{{cite book |title=International Boundaries of Saudi Arabia |last=Abdul-Razzak |first=S. |year=1997 |isbn=978-8172000004 |page=32|publisher=Galaxy Publications }}</ref><ref name="Abdullah I of Jordan 1950 186">{{cite book |title=Memoirs |last=Abdullah I of Jordan |author-link=Abdullah I of Jordan |author2=Philip Perceval Graves |author-link2=Philip Graves  |year=1950 |page=186}}</ref>

===A local difficulty in Mesopotamia===
Cox was Secretary to the Government of India, its chief civil servant, and third in order of precedence.{{efn|1=behind the Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief Forces, India at [[Indian Army Headquarters]]; a role Sir Henry Wilson and CIGS Lord Robertson took away from Lord Hardinge}}  He was despatched to the Gulf as Chief Political Officer with the rank of honorary major-general. The arrival of General Nixon from Simla was "shabby...jobbing" as the military build-up enclosing India's plan to capture Baghdad troubled the veteran political time-servers, morally responsible to humanity and to civilization.{{sfn|Townshend|2010| p=72}}

For want of a more bland administration, Cox complained to Viceroy Lord Curzon that [[Arthur Barrett (Indian Army officer)|Barrett]], whom Nixon replaced, had not wanted to go to Amara in pursuit of a policy of annexation.{{sfn|Townshend|2010| p=73}} In a surprise attack upriver on [[Al-Qurnah|Qurna]] before midnight on 6 December 1914, Commander Nunn and a small fleet managed to link up with Brigadier Fry's units of the 45th to force the Turk to surrender; ultimately, by land and by sea, a typical pincer movement in combined operations enabled only 45 officers and 989 men to take a garrison of 4,000 men.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} At 1.30 pm on 9 December, Sir Percy and [[Charles Irwin Fry|Fry]] took the formal handover from Head of Vilayet, Vali of Basra, Subhi Bey, ending the [[Battle of Qurna]].{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} Cox was not one for sentimentality: but the Turkic rulers had been guilty of several barbarisms: stoning women, and severing thieves' hands off; traitors and spies were buried up to their necks in sand.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}<!-- please restore deleted images and citations -->

During 1915 he saw action with Major General [[Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend|Charles Townshend's]] expeditionary force. Throughout the Great War Cox masterminded the Imperial relationship with Turkic Mesopotamia/Iraq. By December 1915, Townshend's division had been defeated at [[Battle of Ctesiphon (1915)|Battle of Ctesiphon]] and retreated to be besieged in [[Kut|Kut al-Amara]]. Cox left with Brigadier Leachman's cavalry brigade sent back to Basra. General Townshend came to hate "this accursed country"; fly-blown. Historians point to his brilliant defence of the fort at Chitral on the North-West Frontier in 1895, as evidence of suitability for appointment. Townshend, although promised a relief force from Nixon, knew that it was an unrealistic prospect. Although substantial redoubts were constructed during September to December 1915, the cross-river route remained vulnerable to attack.{{sfn|Sandes|1919| pp=132–136}}  Townshend blamed Cox for the failure to evacuate civilians in time. Cox was firmly against exposing them to the winter cold. In this assessment he was supported by Arnold Wilson, who wrote that a general was not competent to judge what protection civilians needed.{{sfn|Graves|1941|p=196}}{{sfn|Wilson|1930| p=92}} On reflection Cox suggested that the 500 departing unit should turn back; but Colonel [[Gerard Leachman]] told him the roads being drenched and muddy were impassable. These men had left on 6 December to be transported downriver to safety. 2,000 would-be fit cavalry men and officers remained behind with the infantry.{{sfn|Winstone|1984| p=160}}