"أوراق تتعلق بتجارة الرقيق على الساحل الشرقي لأفريقيا والنظام المتبع لكبحها" [و‎‎٦‎٥] (٧٢/٦٩)

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seems to be favourable to the permanent establishment of the authority of Azan-bin Gh^s.
Many of the most influential Chiefs are said to be among his supporters, and the resources
neither of Syud Salim nor of Syud Toorkhee are such ss to enable one or the other to
subvert the power of the de facto Ruler of Muscat without external assistance.
3. If the anticipations, reasonably based on these statements, are realized, your
Excellency's Government, in pursuance of the policy indicated in these papers, will
formally recognize Ajfan-bin-Gh^s as Ruler of Muscat, in accordance with the sovereign
will of the people. This policy Her Majesty's Government approve.
4. But whilst Her Majesty's Government are thus willing to recognize a Chief
acceptable to the people, though not a member of the ruling family with which we have so
long had political relations, such recognition is not to be supposed to carry with it any
obligations on our part to enforce or to support those external engagements with Persia
and Zanzibar, which Syud Thoweynee had formed, and which were inherited by Syud
Salim, as his son and recognized successor.
5. With respect to the relations of Muscat with Persia, I have already informed you
by telegraph, that in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, Persia has an undoubted
right to refuse to Azin-ben-Ghes the continuance of the Bunder Abbas lease. And I can
see no reason why the British Government should interfere further in the matter.
6. I have now to advert to the questio ^ of the Zanzibar subsidy, re speclmg-JSLhiA
there has been so much correspondence.^Her Majesty's Government have taken the
^subject into their deliberate consideration with reference to the present posture of affairs
\ at Muscat, and it appears to them that whatever might have been the obligation on the
part of'your Government, to exert your influence to maintain the continued and regular^
payment of the subsidy to the legitimate successors of Syud Saeed, it is not incumbenr|
upon them to interfere any longer now that the succession has been interrupted by a
' 'revolution, which has placed the authority in the hands of a member of another family.
Your Excellency may, therefore, in form the Sultan of Zanzib ar, that tho hritiph Govern-
mp nf are willing to consider the arrangement which was jpaad&.iaJiilil, and communicated
to^Bis Highness in Lord Canning's letter of the 2ndof April of that year, to have lapsed
on the expulsion of Syud Salim from Muscat, and that it will rest with him (Syud Majid)
to enter into such engagements with the new Ruler of Muscat as, in the present altered
. circumstances, he may consider to be advisable.jVo '
V* 7. But it will be your Excellency's duty at ffte same time to impress upon the SultanS"
of Zanzibar and Muscat, that it is the wish of Her Majesty's Government that peace
should prevail between the Rulers of the two divisions of the old principality of Syud
Saeed; and that, moreover, it will be incumbent upon you to interfere in the event of any
naval operations being undertaken which will cause disturbances in the Persian Gulf. It
is the desite of Her Majesty's Government that in the words of the concluding paragraph
of your letter of the 10th of May, you should " allow your present orders to remain in
force, which would, in the event of a maritime contest, or a contest, the materials of which
were'supplied from the shore, but which broke out actively by sea, necessitate a resort to
forcible 'intervention by such naval means, however limited, as are at our disposal."
8. Your Excellency's Government, however, have brought to my notice that these
means'at present are inadequate; and you strongly impress upon Her Majesty's Govern
ment the existing want " of a properly organized. nayal foW, capable of " remaining on the
coast at all seasons, sufficient to preserve order and tranquillity in the Persian seas, and to.
prevent the danger with which the properties of .British subjects might, in that unsettled
region, at any conjuncture be threatened." And you especially advert to a remark made
by Commodore Sir L. Heath, in a letter to Colonel Disbrowe, to the effect that, at some
seasons of the year, service cannot be performed by Her Majesty's ships, manned as they
now are, without imminent danger to the health of the crews. With reference to these
important considerations, I have to inform your Excellency that I have been for some time
past, in communication with the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty with a view to
the provision of an adequate naval force for service in the Persian Gulf, and in other waters
over which your Government exercises supervision, and that I hope shortly to be able to
communicate to your Excellency that arrangements have been made to place the maritime
police of the gulf on a perfectly satisfactory footing,
I am, &c.