Coll 20/10 'Muscat: S. W. Boundary of (Muscat-Aden): Spheres of Responsibility of the Air Authorities in Iraq and Aden' [‎89r] (177/200)

Confidential
19 3C» from fae Hon’dle Lieu tenant-Col.on.el H. V. Biscoe, I.A.,
Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gul^
Secretary to the Government of India,
I have the honour to state that when I visited Muscat in
December last Kis Highness the Sultan mentioned to me that he
wished to bring to the notice of the Government of India that
the southern boundary of the Muscat State was Has Darbat Ali,
as he thought there was some ambiguity about the matter. I
suggested to His Highness that he should address the Political
Agent on the subject as it was obviously not a matter on
which it was possible to express an opinion off hand.
2. His Highness has now therefore sent a letter on the subject
to the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. of which I Enclose a translation for
the information of the Government of India. As far as I am
aware there is no local dispute about the boundary* but the
reason why His Highness has raised the question is that in 1880
the boundary betv/een the jurisdiction of the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. ,
Muscat, and the Resident at Aden was fixed at Ras Shajir -
vide Poreign and Political Department Ho. 650-E.P., dated the
18th February 1880, to the. Secretary to the Government of
Bombay, Political Department. Though this boundary should
of course coincide with that of the boundaries of the Muscat
State, it apparently was not considered necessary at the time
to define the latter and Colonel Ross esz expressly suggested
in his letter Ho. 236 of the 30th June 1879 to the Foreign
and Political Department that the limits of the respective
jurisdictions should be fixed “apart from any question of the
limits of the Sultan of Muscat* s jurisdiction to the south’*.
As His Highness the Sultan of Muscat has hov/ever now raised
the question it would seem desirable to settle It.
3. The Dhufar District admittedly belongs to Muscat and
Lorimer, Vol, II, P. 442, gives its western boundary as include
ing the village of Kharifot which is 17 miles west of Ras
Shaj ar.