Britain’s ‘informal empire’ in the Gulf was recognized as ‘unique’ in a Foreign Office memorandum of 1908 in which the writer noted: [In the Persian Gulf, Britain] has for generations borne burdens there which no other nation has ever undertaken anywhere, except in the capacity of sovereign; she has had duty thrust upon her without dominion; she has kept the peace amongst people who are not her subjects; has patrolled, during upwards of two centuries, waters over which she has enjoyed no formal lordship.39
