'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.' [‎59ar] (130/208)

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territories of the Joasim tribe. ITor many years
this coast, has been regarded as feudatory of the
Sheikh of Shargah, and the coast itself as sub
ject to the Maritime Truce already mentioned.
The territory in question has never been under
the sovereignty of His Highness the Sultan of
Muscat, and it is admitted in the Erench Case
(p. 36) that this piece of coast is under the
government of the Sheikh of the Joasim, residing
at Ras-el-Kheima.
From Eas Dibba to Tibba (Tibat) the coast
forming the promontory of Mussandim is claimed
by the Sultan, who has certainly before and since
1864i exercised authority on that coast by his
"Wali, and in other ways; and his rights on the
coast are recognized by the Sheikh of Shargah
and the Joasim.
7. This statement will show that, far from Great
Britain having withdrawn the Trucial Chiefs
from the dominions of the Sultan, in breach of
the Declaration of 1862, it has dealt with them
by Treaty for over forty years before that
Declaration was made. On this point the con
tentions of the Erench Case appear to be based
on an insufficient knowledge of the history of
the territories in question.
But, before leaving the geographical part of
the Erench Case, it is necessary to deal, under
protest, with the suggestion (on p. 38) that the
British Government are seeking to shut in the
Sultan of Muscat, in disregard of obligations to
the Ottoman Empire, by a series of Treaties with
the tribes of Hadramaut. This allegation is abso
lutely irrelevant to any question involved.
The Treaties in question, and others, have been
made in furtherance of the British policy of
suppressing the over-sea Slave Trade, and pro
tecting commerce; but that policy is certainly not
based on any British designs against Oman, while,
with reference to the Ottoman Empire, it is
sufficient to quote the language of the late
Mr. Theodore Bent, the latest European traveller
who has visited Hadramaut :~
" I may here emphatically say that the southern coast
of Arabia has nothing to do wilh Turkey. From
Muscat to Aden there is not a single tribe paying tribute
to, or having any communication with, the Ottoman
Porte, which was expelled from Southern Arabia in
1G30, and has not since that date been able to recover
its lost supremacy."