'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.' [‎60v] (133/208)

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Britisli resident, of wliicli France complained,
was based on friendship to the Saltan and desire
to maintain his position and from a perfectly
justifiable concern for the lives and property of
the many natives of India resident in Oman (who British Case, p. 7 t
are British subjects or proteges within the
Anglo-Muscat Treaty of 1891) from injury by
attacks of predatory Arabs from the Hinterland
of Oman.
Turning now to the Dhofar incident (p. o9
of the French Case), it is to be observed that
both Great Britain and France agree that Dhofar
is part of Oman. Mr. Theodore Bent, who
travelled through that district very shortly before
the disturbances in question, at first had an
unfriendly reception, which he ascribed to the
presence on the beach at Merbat of a large dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. Southern Arabia,
flying French colours which he had reason to P- 232 •
believe was conveying a cargo of slaves. He
there met Suleeman, the Wali of the Saltan
of Muscat, who had been in office for eighteen
years. The district was certainly not wholly
peaceful, and Mr. Bent's observation of the
Wali's acts led him to conclude that his methods
were somewhat rigorous. If the person who
raised rebellion in Dhofar, Seiyyid Fazhil, was,
as stated in the French Case (p. 39), a Turkish
Chief, the attitude of the Sultan in opposing his
endeavours to seize Dhofar was a natural resist
ance to an attempt to transfer this very fertile
part of the frankincense coast to another
sovereignty, and the action of Great Britain in
acceding to the Sultan's request for help was the
action of a loyal ally assisting the Sultan to
preserve his dominions from attack and not,
as most unwarrantably suggested, an attempt
to establish a Protectorate over Muscat or Dhofar.
The British documents quoted in the French
Case (p. 40 n), and the declaration of the
Marquess of Dufferin there referred to (p. 40),
demonstrate the correctness of the British
attitude. The stipulation as to future arrange
ments was a fair and just condition of assistance
directed to preventing recurrence of local
outbreaks or the severities of Wali Suleeman,
and the result of the British action (which was
confined to sending a ship of war to the spot, thus
securing a bloodless victory for the Sultan), was,
as stated in the French Case (p. 41), the restora
tion of the authority in Dhofar of the Sultan's Wali,
and the suppression of machinations intended
to put that district under another authority.