'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.' [‎46r] (100/208)

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Altesse sont convaincus de qnelque crime ou infraction punissable par la loi, ils seront cong^dies
par les Fran^ais an service desquels ils se tronvent, et livres aux antorites locales."
It thus appears that the only native persons who can, in virtue of the provisions of the
Treaty regulating the relations between France and Zanzibar, claim French protection or fly the
French flag on their dhows are :—
1. Natives of French Protectorates, who were there resident, or, at least, were not resident
in Zanzibar when the said Protectorates were established ; and
2. The hondfide servants of French citizens and proteges; the local authority to be judge of
what constitutes bond fide service.
The Treaty excludes, therefore,from French protection all persons not born in French possessions
or dependencies, though they may have acquired land there and have been inscribed on the French
Consular Register at Zanzibar or Muscat. The officers of the Administration of the Sultanate
have therefore a right to decline to recognize exterritorial privileges to native vessels flying the
French flag until satisfied that the owner is a hond fide citizen or protege of France. It would
not be nepessary, in order to act on this principle, to board or search the vessel under the French
flag, but in any case in which the Administration had reason to believe that the flag was being
improperly hoisted, the master, when he came on shore, would be called upon to produce his
papers, and prove that he was a French protege in the sense which I have indicated in this despatch.
If he refused to produce his papers, he would be arrested.
In such matters, it would he proper for the officers of the Administration to be guided by the
rinciples of the Ottoman Nationality Law, which has been accepted in Turkey by the foreign
owers, and may, therefore, be assumed to contain nothing contrary to the due exercise of the
privileges of exterritoriality. Under that law, a native of the Ottoman Empire is presumed to be
an Ottoman subject until he has proved that he is not one according to the law in question, the
onus probandi lying, not on the territorial authority, but on the person claiming the privilege of
exemption from its jurisdiction.
It will be observed in reference to the French Treaty with Muscat (and, indeed, with
reference to the Zanzibar Treaties generally) that it speaks only of French citizens or persons in
the service of French citizens; the Administration of the Sultanate may therefore refuse, as the
Porte has always done, to recognize Tunisians and natives of Comoro as entitled to the benefits
of the Treaty. All the more may those benefits be refused to persons who are not even natives
of French Protectorates, notwithstanding that they may at one time or other have been improperly
allowed the status of French prot^g^s.
I authorize you to act, in any cases that may arise in the future, on the principles indicated
in my present despatch.
I am, &c.
(Signed) SALISBURY.
No. 6.
M. Cambon to the Marqitess of Salisbury.
Ambassade de France, londres, le 27 Juillet, 1899.
MON Gouvernement vient de receyoir de M. Taillet, Consul k Zanzibar, un nouveau
rapport concernant I'affaire Selim-bin-Seif, qui me permet de soumettre a votre Seigneurie
diff'^rentes observations auxquelles semble donner lieu sa lettre du 12 Novembre dernier.
M. Taillet four nit tout d'abord, an sujet de la nationalite de I'interesse, des renseignements
qui etablissent que ce dernier nest pas sujet de Zanzibar et que la qualite de protege
frangais lui a etc deniee a tort. Cet homme, dont le pfere est originaire de Sour, est, en effet, ne a
la Grande Comore, qui n'a jamais fait partie des Etats du Sultan de Zanzibar. 11 est vrai que,
tout enfant, il a ete emmene a Pemba, ou il a ete eleve, mais cette circonstance ne semble pas de
nature a modifier son statut d'origine.
Le fait de la naissance de Selim-bin-Seif a la Grande Comore est, d'ailleurs, connu des
autontes Zanzibarites. D'apres une lettre adressee a M. Laronce par le Brigadier-General Raikes,
le 12 Juin, 1898, Selim-bin-Seif Fa declare lui-meme lors de son arrestation. Cette affirmation
est enregistr^e dans le jugement rendu le 16 Juin, 1898, centre cet indigene et qui a ete
communique par votre Seigneurie a cette Ambassade le 12 Novembre suivant.
,. ^ e8t vrai qu'aux termes de ces deux documents, Selim-bin-Seif aurait neanmoins reconnu
qu'il etait sujet Zanzibarite, mais aucune indication n'est fournie sur les conditions dans lesquelles
il aurait acquis cette quality.
La comparaison du rapport de M. Taillet avec le texte de la sentence rendue centre Selim-
bin-Seif montre d'ailleurs que d'autres points appellent des eclaircissements. Ainsi, par exemple
le jugement enregistre que Selim ne possederait actuellement, et n'aurait jamais possede, de
propriety a la Grande Comore. D'apr&s notre agent, Selim, an moment on il a ete autorise a
porter nos couleurs, aurait (He proprietaire d'une maison, non, il est vrai, a la Grande Comore
mais dans une possession franyaise toute voisine, a Nossi-Be.
, ."^ a liberation prochaine de Selim-bin-Seif permettra 4 M. Taillet de rinterro^er et de
preciser la situation. &
Lorsque le statut personnel de Selim-bin-Seif aura ete etabli, men Gouvernement aura
suivant la solution que cette question aura re9ue, a examiner quelles reparations materielles 'il
pourra avoir a reclamer du Gouvernement de Sa Majeste la Reine pour compenser le preiudice
qui aura pu etre indument caus£ k ce protege frangais.