'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.' [‎8v] (25/208)

12
No. 2, Suri dhows,
November 20,
1891.
The bulk of the Omanis whohave thus received
Prench papers belong to the district of Jalaniand
town of Sur, within the territories and subject to
the sovereignty of the Sultan of Muscat. The
seafaring men among this population leave Sur
with their vessels and voyage to India and Africa,
returning at the end of the season and laying up
their ships at Sur. Many of the owners of the
vessels, having grown old and affluent, are content
to send their vessels out under captains, and do
not, themselves, leave Sur. Many of these Suris Cox.
had been, and some still are, engaged in the over
sea Slave Trade.
In Tebruary 1891 the Prench Consul at the
British port of Aden granted French papers and
flags to eight captains or owners who were subjects
of the Sultan of Muscat and resident at Sur. Appendix No. I,
Sun dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. papers.
The fact was reported to the British Government, Eibot, November
20 1891
and remonstrances were addressed to the French '
Government, in reply to which M. Eibot, then
Prench Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the 20th
November, 1891, stated that the grant had been Appendix No. ,
, , i p n x i. i Ribot to Lytton,
made in error, and that he would not tail to taKe inoiosnre 3 in
the steps necessary to prevent its recurrence.
This statement, made before the qualified and
partial ratification by France of the Brussels
Act of 1890, was understood by Great Britain to
mean that France would no longer, grant to
Omani Arabs the use of French flags, or titres de
navigation.
Notwithstanding this statement, the French Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7,
, . . -i -n i Suri dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. papers;
authorities at Obokh in 1892 granted French a i s0 n i Q No. i.
papers to dhows whose owners and crews were
Suris, and the French Consul at Aden referred to
the authorities at Obokh dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. owners who
applied to him at Aden for French papers.
The Sultan of Muscat has never admitted that
this grant of French flags or papers is warranted
by Treaty or usage, nor that the French authori
ties are entitled to make themselves judges or
protectors of any of his subjects who are not
actually and lond fide in the service of French
subjects in his dominions. He expressed his
objections so far back as 1891, and in that year
Muhammad -bin-Mubarak-bin-Salim, his Wali at
Sur, ordered the skippers to cancel their certi
ficates and return them to the French, and this May 13,1893,
order seems in some cases to have been obeyed, p ' ^ 011 file '
In March 1891 the Sultan furnished the British Inclosnre 9 in
Government with a list of thirteen captains of papers, and see
Suri boats carrying French colours. mlvoh u/mi.