'File 35/85 III A 10 French Flag Question' [‎55r] (120/610)

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I should be glad to be furnished with any information which y ou may be
able to give in regard to the statements made by M. Cambon.
I am, &c.,
(Signed) SALISBURY.
No. 8.
The Marquess of Salisbury to Mr. Herbert.
Sir, Foreign Officcy September 11th, 1899.
Before the Sultanate of Zanzibar came under the Protectorate of Her
Majesty in 1890 the protection by foreign Powers of individuals living in His
Highness' dominions was exercised without reference to any very strict code
of rules. To this state of things must no doubt be attributed the relatively
large number of cases in which, since the establishment of the British Protec
torate, particular persons have received or have claimed the protection of
European Powers in circumstances which did not appear to Her Majesty's
Government to warrant the withdrawal of such persons from the Sultan's juris
diction. Many of these cases have formed the subject of correspondence
between Her Majesty's Government and foreign Governments and between
their Representatives in Zanzibar. Some cases have been settled by compromise,
and not always in accordance with the strict interpretation of the rules which
should have governed them; others are still pending or have settled themselves
by efflux of time.
It is necessary, however, that the protection of individuals by foreign Powers
should be strictly limited to those cases where it can be undoubtedly justified by
the Treaties existing between Zanzibar and the foreign Powers concerned.
Her Majesty's Government, after giving careful consideration to the
question, have instructed Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General at Zanzibar,
as to the rules and principles which must in future guide the Sultan's Govern
ment in deciding whether, in any given case, the right of foreign protection
is properly exercised. So many of the cases forming the subject of corre
spondence have concerned the French Consulate, that I think it right to
inform the French Government of the circumstances which have led to the
above-mentioned instructions being sent to Zanzibar, and of the nature of the
instructions themselves.
As regards France, the attention of Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-
General has in the first place been drawn to the serious inconvenience occa
sioned to the Saltan's Administration by the grant of French protection to natives
who do not appear to be entitled to it, either by the French Treaty with Maskat
of the 17th November, 1844, or by the other Treaties with Zanzibar, to the
benefit of which France is entitled under the operation of the most-favoured
nation clause in our own Treaty.
The Treaty between France and Maskat contains the following Articles :—
tc ARTICLE III.
<e Les Fran9ais auront la faculte d'acheter, de vendre ou de prendre a bail
des terres, maisons, magasins, dans les Etats de Son Altesse le Sultan de Mascate
Nul de pourra, sous aucun pretexte, penetrer dans les maisons, magasions, et autres
proprietes, possedes ou occupes par des Fran9ais ou par des personnes au service
de Fran9ais, ni les visiter sans le consentement de Toccupant, a moins que ce ne
soit avec I'intervention du Consul de France.