The British grabbed Kharg Island twice — why couldn’t they keep it? – The Times of India

The “greatest military power now existing or perhaps that ever did exist in the world” planned to invade India, Lord Minto, the Governor General at Calcutta, announced to his executive council in January 1808.
Napoleon, Lord Minto had learnt, wanted to take India, and Minto believed that the invasion would be launched from Persia. “The very preservation of our empire in India may depend upon our meeting the advances of the enemy at a remote position,” he said at a secret consultation in March that year.