'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.' [‎61r] (134/208)

The action of Great Britain in thus assisting
the Sultan to maintain his rights in his capital
and in outlying parts of his territory may be
contrasted with the action of France in making
claims of protection, which, if successful, would
withdraw over 1,000 of the Siiri tribesmen,
with their very numerous dependents, from the
Sultan's jurisdiction, and would result in the
creation of an independent Arab community
within his dominions.
Yet another allegation by France needs to be
dealt with—the suggestion that Great Britain
attempted to impose Indian Customs officials, on
the Sultan (p. 48). It is quite true that
Great Britain has offered such officials as a
means of securing a better collection of customs
than was effected by the system of farming them
and of putting an end to the evasion of such
customs on the strength of possessing French
papers. The proposal, if accepted, would have
greatly increased the revenues of the Sultan, but
the Sultan did not accept it. It should, however,
be stated that the Siiris, who have the French
flag and rely on French protection, refuse to pay
more than a very small portion of the customs
due from them, and that the consequent loss to
the Sultan on the farm of customs at Siir is very
great, as he realizes only 6,000 dollars a-year
instead of 50,000. The French Government are,
therefore, quite mistaken in saying (p. 47) that
the Sultan's customs duties are not impaired by
the grant of French flags.
The revenues of the Sultan of Muscat have
suffered severely by the habitual evasion by
French flagholders at Siir of the whole or part of
his lawful customs dues of 5 per cent. In order
to lessen the Sultan's loss by this evasion, the
Bombay Customs Department prepared, and at
regular intervals sent to Muscat, a return of the
native craft clearing for Oman. A summary of
Appendix 9, p. 53. the returns is appended to this Case. From that
summary it will be seen that only 12,023 bags
of rice (168 lbs. each) were cleared for Siir, a
place of 10,000 inhabitants, which is the chief
import and export centre of the Sharkiyeh and
Jalaan districts of Oman, vv 7 hereas 23,876 bags of
rice were cleared for Maseira, an island of 1,000
inhabitants, mainly of the Jennebeh tribe, to
which most of the French flagholders belong,
and at which the Sultan has no Customs officer.
The modus operandi seems to be to pay only on