'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.' [‎56v] (123/208)

16
to the Heport of the British Consul at Muscat of
the 20th January, 1898, with respect to the case Appendix 7, p. f7.
of Saiim Mohamed-ab-Bacli as a prete nom for
Arab vessels sailing under a Prench flag, and to
the correspondence with respect to slave running
in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. by the same man under
"French colours.
Passing thence to the Arabs whose breach of
quarantine led immediately to the present arbi
tration (British Case, p. 18), Abdulla-bin-Khamis-
bin-Ali (whose name is No. 3 on the Erench list),
in his deposition at p. 86 of the British Case,
says :—
"I got my Articles fourteen years ago at Jibuti. I
bought a house there, and a man named Musa-bin-
Saleh lives in it. He pays me rental yearly, but at no
fixed rate. I have never resided in Jibuti myself. I
and my family and my ancestors have all been born
and bred in Siir. I visited Jibuti two years ago."
And yet this man has been francise by the colonial
authorities of Prance : and turning to the case of
his son, Salim-bin-Abdulla (British Case, p. 85),
we find him stating ;—
" I am a French subject, pure and simple. I cannot
explain how I became one, but just like the other French
subjects in Stir. I have no French papers. My father
has . . . ; all I know about the Articles is that they give
French protection. My father and my family and I
have lived at Siir all our lives, and have never lived
anywhere else."
The statement of the third quarantine-breaker,
Khalfan-bin-Muhammed (British Case, p. 85}, is
equally instructive. His name is not certainly
traceable on the Prench list, but he states that
he sails as captain ( £< nakoda") in the buggalow Large trading vessel.
of Juma-bin-Saeed, and there is a man of that
name who is No. 6 on the Prench list. Khalfan
states :—
"I am a French subject, having flown the French
flag for five or six years. I got it at Jibuti, where I
own a house. There is no one helongiug to me
Residing in it."
Subsequently he says :• -
" I cannot exactly explain what grounds I have for
believing that we are all French proteges. My cousin
Juma knows most about it, and he says so. I made a
mistake in stating that I share the ownership of a house tj,
in Jibuti; it belongs really to my cousin Juma entirely