'Muscat Dhows Arbitration. In the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. Grant of the French Flag to Muscat Dhows. The case on behalf of the Government of His Britannic Majesty.' [‎8r] (24/208)

11
The Sultan of Muscat is not a party to the
Brussels Act, but his obligations as to suppression
of the Slave Trade are defined by the Treaties
already mentioned.
Until the acquisition by France of the Colonies
or Protectorates of Obokh and Tajourah, the
Comoros and Madagascar, little opportunity arose
for the obtaining of French flags and papers by
the owners or skippers of Arab dhows. But when
it was found that France (almost alone among the
Powers) had not consented to the provisions of
the Brussels Act with reference to the search and
Articles XLII- detention on the high seas of vessels under her
IJXI
flag which were engaged in the Slave Trade, or
guilty of the fraudulent use of a flag, and
still maintained her objections to the visite of
vessels under the French flag, the owners and
skippers of native vessels who wished to engage
in the Slave Trade, or from any other cause to
escape surveillance on the high seas by the war
ships of the Signatory Powers, immediately had
recourse to French authorities to obtain French
flags and papers.
Per Major Cox. From the conclusion of the Treaty of 1844
until the present time very few French citizens
have established themselves in the territories of
the Sultan of Muscat, and at the time when the
differences to be settled in this arbitration arose
there was in Oman only one French citizen
(Gogyer) outside the Consular establishment,
and one citizen of a Christian State not having a
Consul at Muscat, who was treated as being under
the French Consul, nor were any branches of any
French commercial house/ set up in the Sultan's
dominions. Consequently there were very few
French citizens to take into their service any
subjects of the Sultan.
Notwithstanding the terms of the Treaty of
1844 and the Declaration of 1862, and the pro
visions of Article XXXII of the Brussels Act
of 1890, French officials in their Colonies or
Protectorates of Obokh, Madagascar, and the
Comoros have from time [?] granted French ships'
papers, and flags to subjects of the Sultan of
Muscat, and the same course has been taken by
the French Consuls at Aden/ Muscat, f and
Zanzibar.^
* The titres issued , at Aden is inclosure 4 in No. 1, Suri dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean.
papers.
f See the titres, file, pp. 206, 208, 210, 212.
J These titres form also in closures Nos. 15, 16 } 17,18 in No. 49
from India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , August 11, 1900.
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