'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.' [‎52r] (114/208)

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French Caso, p. 15. His Majesty's Government quite agree with the
Prench Government that the flag may properly he
given to natives of Prench Colonies or of Preneh
Protectorates, and this view has already been ex
pressed at p. 24 of the British Case. Moreover,
no question arises in the present arbitration as
to the possession of Prench papers by Arab vessels
outside the territorial waters oF Oman ; nor does
His Majesty's Government ask the Tribunal to
deal with the case of any Arabs, except subjects
of Muscat, who are found within the territory or
the territorial waters of His Highness the Sultan.
With reference to Zanzibaris who fly the Prench
flag (Prench Case, p. 15), it is not necessary to
say more than that such persons appear not to
be subjects of the Sultan of Muscat, owing to the
severance of Zanzibar from Muscat in 1856, but
that their independence of His Highness does
not qualify them to become Prench proteges in
Muscat, and that their status in Oman would
seem to be that of proteges of Great Britain and
subjects of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
In the Prench Case it is sought to found an
argument on the statement that a practice insti
tuted in 1845 was allowed to go on without
protest until 1897.
French Case, p. 31. Great Britain has continually sought to induce
Prance to withdraw her flag from Arab vessels;
but the objections taken to its use were its
abuse for the purposes of the Slave Trade, which
have been the subject of innumerable and well-
founded reports by British cruisers in the Indian
Ocean. It is very likely that in many cases the
flag was used without? the authority of any
Prench officer, but often slavers had regular
Prench papers. The Prench cruisers in the
Indian seas were by no means numerous enough,
to insure adequate surveillance over the many
Arabs who chose to hoist Prench colours; and it
is to be observed that while credit is taken at
p. 32 of the Prench Case for severe punishment
said to have been inflicted in one case of slave-
trading under the Prench flag, no mention is
made of the fact that the capture of the vessels
in question was not due to Prench effort,
but to the visdlance of a British cruiser off the
Appendix 3, p. 41 j
coast of Oman, that the Prench officials made a
very violent protest against this action, and that
the punishment inflicted was very far from severe
or deterrent, seeing that sentence was awarded
on the 28th August, 1897, and that the captains
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