File 345/1908 Pt 1 'Mohammerah: situation. British assurances to Sheikh.' [‎157v] (319/416)

6
r
Mr. Grant
Duff to
Govern
ment
of India,
July 28 ,
1906 .
£i policy of marine insurance on the consignment. lhis loss the Company had refused
to pay on two grounds \ —(d) That the plaintiffs had, when effecting the msuiaiice,
concealed a fact material to the estimation of the risk, viz., that the importation otjl
arms was forbidden by Persian law ; and (2) that the adventure was illegab as being
in contravention to the law of nations. Mr. Justice Pigham, in giving judgment
for the plaintiffs, held that “ the import of arms was not illegal according to the law
of Persia, as that law was administered in practice and enjoined,” or, in other words,
that no real prohibition existed on the importation of arms into Lersian poits. As
regards the legality of the act of seizure, the question was determined by the further
action brought by Messrs. Fracis, Times and Co. against Captain Carr, E.N., the
officer who "had seized the “ Baluchistan,” for wrongful deprivation of property.
Mr. Justice Grantham, who tried the case in the first instance, found for the
defendant, and his judgment, after being reversed by the Court of Appeal, was
finally upheld by the House of Fords, on the ground that the seizure had taken
place in Muscat territorial waters, and was, under the Sultans Proclamation of
January 1898, justifiable according to the law of Muscat.
On the 1st January, 1900, the Shah promulgated a law reaffirming the prohi
bition against the importation into Persia of arms and ammunition, as well as various
other commodities. The case of the British steamer Hathor, on board of which
arms were seized at Bushire in November 1900, led to an Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. being
issued, on the recommendation of the Law Officers of the Crown, by which the
Persian Law of the 1st January, 1900, was made applicable to British subjects, in
so far as the provisions respecting arms and ammunition were concerned.
It may be said generally that the efforts of the Persian authorities to put down
the traffic have been quite ineffectual. e£ Possibly, wrote Mr. Grant Huff in July
1906, “ when M. Naus has received the launches, now building for the Persian
Government at Bombay ” (since supplied) “ something may be done by the Belgian
officials to check the arms traffic. But there is no present likelihood of the Persian
Government taking the slightest trouble to put an end to it. Even if they desired
to do so, I doubt if they have the power.”
The Government of India have done their best to check the trade at the Persian
ports. In 1900 a Vice-Consul was appointed to Bunder Abbas, where “ it was hoped
that the presence of a British officer might lead to the display of greater vigour in the
repression of the illicit importation of arms along the neighbouring portions of the
Persian coast.” In 1902 measures were concerted with the Persian Governor-
General of Mekran to prevent the importation of arms into Persian Baluchistan,
and to impose restrictions on their possession in that province. A further Conference
on the subject took place between the Persian officials on the Mekran border and the
British frontier officers in 1906, and the desire to cope with the illegal traffic in
arms was one of the reasons which led, in the same year, to the temporary appoint
ment of Lieutenant G. H. Ogilvie as Vice-Consul at Bam.
But the nature of the country is such that, once the consignments are landed
and clear of the coast, it is virtually impossible to catch the caravans conveying
them into the interior. This view is confirmed by the Beport furnished by Lieutenant
Ogilvie, who travelled through Persian Baluchistan in June 1906 on his way to
take up his duties at Bam. He said that the local Persian authorities were quite
incapable of dealing with the traffic, and that the Afghans employed in smuggling
arms up country from the coast were invariably well armed, and could overcome
any opposition offered to them with the greatest ease ; and he explained in a later
Report that “ the communications in Baluchistan are so unspeakably bad that large
caravans, when once they have left the coast, can travel without any fear of inter
ference, even if such interference were contemplated by the authorities, and with the
utmost secrecy.” It may be added that the Sirdars Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. of Persian Baluchistan are not
bevond the suspicion of having a pecuniary interest in the trade.
As recently as November 1907 further measures were introduced by the Govern
ment of India, at the suggestion of Mr. New, of the Indo-European Telegraph
Department, for dealing with the arms traffic on the Mekran coast. These measures
included the creation of a small corps of camel sowars to patrol the coast between
Jask and Chahbar, in order to collect information about the movements of Afghans,
expected consignments of arms, &c., which they wdll communicate without delay to
British ships engaged in the suppression of the trade.
How far these measures will be successful remains to be seen. For the present
the situation may be summarized in the words used by the Government of India in
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