'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.' [‎30v] (69/208)

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Not content with, a wholly unnecessary elabora
tion of French policy as to the " droit de visite,"
the "Contre-Memoire" under some misunder
standing puts forward the supposition that Great
Britain denies or questions the rights and
•privileges of the French flag on the high seas.
As between Great Britain and France, the
question of the " droit de visite " has passed from
the stage of international controversy to that of
convention by the regime agreed on in the Joint
Instructions of 1867. As to other Powers which
have acceded to the Brussels Act, the " droit de
visite " in the Indian seas is mutually conceded
by the Brussels Act. His Majesty's Government
can well conceive that a Power to whose subjects
France has granted French papers and quasi-
protection in the manner adopted as to Omanis
might claim as against France to defeat such
usurpation by search even on the high seas of
such vessels ; but it is not necessaryto deal with any
such contention in the present case. Before leaving
this subject, it is, however, desirable to explain
to the Tribunal that the desire of Great Britain
that there should be a mutual right of search over
native vessels in seas frequented by slavers—a
desire which has been accomplished by the
accession of almost every Power except France to
such an arrangement—was to secure an effective
international police of the infested seas instead
of the isolated and ineffective national system
which France prefers. Nothing was further from
the desire of Great Britain than, as is suggested
in the French " Contre-Memoire," to destroy the
influence of France in these seas.
In conclusion, His Majesty's Government must
protest against the wholly gratuitous introduction
of two documents relating to questions which arose
between Great Britain and the United States in
1857 and 1858 as to vessels suspected of fraudu
lently using the American flag. The full text of
the correspondence is to be found in the British
"State Papers," vol. xlviii, pp. 1244-1250, and
vol. xlix, p. 1103, et sen., and no doubt also in the
American diplomatic correspondence. Great Britain
and the United States were in perfect accord as to
the necessity of stopping the oversea traffic in slaves
under the American flag, and as to the accuracy
of many, if not all, of the British statements.
The only difference between the two Powers was,
as to the nature of the visite which a British vessel
might make to a vessel on the high seas flying