'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.' [‎60r] (132/208)

by any debtor who lias a counter-claim against
his creditor.
It is impossible to read Avithout astonishment
the suggestions made in the .French Case that
G-reat Britain has infringed on the independence
of Muscat—
1. By warning Arab Sheikhs of Oman who
were in revolt against the Sultan that they
must not attack Muscat or Muttra (p. 42).
2. By assisting the Sultan to put down the
rebellion in Dhofar (p. 39).
In both these instances the action taken by
Great Britain was calculated and intended to
preserve the sovereignty of the Sultan, and to
maintain his dominions intact. Great Britain
performed for Sultan Saiyyid Eeysal the promise
made to his father, Saiyyid Turki, to stop attacks
on the capital of Oman (French Case, p. 42).
The Sultan's authority over the tribes of the
coast and Hinterland has not been exercised with
continuous success. Throughout the first half of
the nineteenth century Great Britain often helped
the Sultan of Oman to resist the attacks of the
Wahibi fanatics from the interior of Arabia; and
even after the final repulse of these attacks,
many tribes within the Sultan's dominions are
recalcitrant if not rebellious, and attack the coast
towns.
The picture drawn in the French Case, p. 42,
of the Sultan " resigning " himself to telling his
rebellious subjects that if they attacked Muscat
or Muttra they would also have Great Britain
to reckon with, is a travesty of the real facts.
Is it to be understood that the Sultan was
unwillingly coerced into denying himself
the pleasure of seeing his capital and chief
commercial port besieged, taken, and plundered
by the inland tribes, as the completest
mode of asserting his independence of Great
Britain ? And if (as is stated at p. 43 of the
French Case), Arabs have one word for " pro
tection " and " protectorate," what inference is
to be drawn as to the action of France in Siir
from the repeated use of these terms in the letter
from the Arab flagholders, printed at pp. 65-70 ?
a Et ci present nous prions le Gouvernement Frangais
de nous donner une protection forte telle que personne
ne nous fasse opposition, ni sur terre, ni sur mer, ni dans
nos personnes, ni dans notre avoir, ni dans tout ce qui nous
concerne," p. 65.
In truth it is obvious that the action of the
[530] E 2