1. George Nathaniel Curzon, “The True Imperialism,” The Nineteenth Century and After, a Monthly Review, Vol. 58 (January–June 1908): 152–65.
2. The most useful works on the British ascendancy in the Gulf region include Robert J. Blyth, "Britain versus India in the Persian Gulf: The Struggle for Political Control, c. 1928-48," Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth Affairs 28, no. 1 (January 2000): 90-111
3. J. B. Kelly, "The Legal and Historical Basis of the British Position in the Persian Gulf," St. Antony's Papers, no. 4, Middle Eastern Affairs, no. 1 (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1958)
4. J. B. Kelly, "Great Game or Grand Illusion," Survey: A Journal of East & West Studies 25, no. 2 (Spring 1980): 109-27
5. Halford L. Hoskins, "Background of the British Position in Arabia," Middle East Journal 1, no. 2 (April 1947): 137-47