'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.' [‎56r] (122/208)

15
given to each of the Arabs on the list. They
British Case, pi 70. would point out that M. Cambon, on the
25th June, 1900, informed the Marquess of
Lansdowne that no new paper of protection
would be given, and that existing papers would
be carefully examined, so as to exclude those for
the grant of which no just cause existed, and also
that in the Prench Case it is stated (p. 14) that
tbe Consuls at Zanzibar and Muscat have received
orders (it is not said when) not; to grant Erench
papers to any native vessel without first consulting
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In view of these
statements, it may justly be presumed that the
materials are available for giving without delay
a much more precise account of the Omani dhows
than has yet been supplied.
There has not been sufficient time fully to
examine in Oman the Erench list or to test its
accuracy, and, as will be seen later, difficulties
have been placed in the way of utilizing the
short time available. But from the letter of His
Appendix 4, p. 42. Highness the Sultan, dated the 21st March, 1905,
it appears that of the persons named three are
dead:—
Salim-bin-Mahomed Ali Badi (No. 23 on
French list);
Salim-bin-Thabet (No. 14);
Ahmed-bin-Saeed (No. 22)
Further, independently of the fuller explanation
for which His Majesty's Government and His
Highness the Sultan are entitled to ask, a com
parison of documents in the British Case w 7 ith
the French list makes it possible to give instances
of the doubtfulness of the claims of these Omanis
to be French proteges.
Of the Arabs named in the four titres de
navigation set out at pp. 45-47 of the British
Case, there appears on the French list—
Bachid-bin-Khamis, No. 8 ;
Salim-bin-Thabet, No. 14; and
Salim-bin-Mohammed, No. 10.
In the case of each of these men the place
of residence was left blank in the litre, although
the men were clearly resident at Siir, and admitted
by the French list to be Omanis, and the titres
were surrendered to the Sultan at Siir.
The attention of the Tribunal is directed to the
Beport on p. 77 of the British Case that Salim-
bin-Thabet was engaged in the Slave Trade, and
[530] D