'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.' [‎65r] (142/208)

(f)
XI.—THE LOU WATI A.
The Louwatia, with respect to whom a com
plaint is made against Great Britain (French
Case. p. 45) are more usually known in India as
Khojas. These Khojas are a Mohammedan sect
Appendix 10. p. 53. of Indian origin, whose religious head in India
is His Highness the Agha Khan.
Many of them migrated to Muscat from
Hyderabad, in Sind and Kattiawar, and they form
distinct communities in Oman, and are known
there as Hyderabadis or Louwatras. About 1,000
are in Muscat, and in Muttra they occupy a
separate fortified quarter containing about 500
houses, into which no stranger is allowed to enter.
It is well known to persons familiar with the
East that races and faiths do not tend easily to
commingle as they do in the West.
The Khojas who migrated from India before
the British annexation of Sind in 1843, and their
descendants have always been considered as
subjects of the Sultam and those who migrated
later, with their descendants, have been con
sidered as British subjects. Some of the Khojas
who migrated from Cutch and other native States
of India are treated as Jhitish proteges under Art. 2
of the Anglo-Muscat Treaty of 1891 (printed at
p. 7 of the British Case), which continues an
arrangement to the like effect made in 1873 with
the then Sultan of Muscat. These facts explain
the diversity of status among the Khojas on
Appendix 10, p. 53. ^hich Prance makes comment.
There is no reason to suppose that Col. Miles
issued any notification to the Khojas as suggested
in the Erench Case, p. 45.
Public notices were, as a matter of ordinary
routine, posted by the British Consul, inviting
British subjects resident in Oman to register
themselves at the British Consulate. An example
is given in Appendix 10.
The Khojas are oftenin pecuniary difficulties, and
occasionally to evade the jurisdiction of a British
Court, some of those who fall into the category of
British subjects, claim to be subjects of the
Sultan. Abdul Hussin-bin-Eadl mentioned in
Appendix n, p. 54. the French Case was an old man who had always