Coll 6/88 'Intelligence: Military Report on Arabia (C.B. 1892).' [‎16r] (36/133)

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THE HADHRAMAUT
The HADHRAMAUT is a considerable coastal tract of fertile valleys in South ARABIA
extending from the ADEN PROTECTORATE to OMAN. No western boundary is in
existence, and on the east the boundary is with OMAN, which is described under OMAN.
Inland the country is bounded by the Great Desert and the total area is about 82,000 square
miles, with a Muhammadan population of 150,000. The most important coastal chief is the
Sultan of SHIHR and MUKALLA, who lives usually at the latter port. MUKALLA is the
chief port. Other ports of importance are SHIHR and QISHN.
The territory is loosely under British protection and control by treaty.
HAS A
HASA occupies the whole of the PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. littoral of SAUDI-ARABIA, from
KUWAIT to QATAR. Its chief importance lies in the fact that an oil concession has been
granted to the Californian Arabian Standard Oil Co., an American concern, which has struck
oil in an area south-east of QATIF. Both Ibn Saud and the company are anxious to develop
RAS TANURAH as a port, both for marketing the oil and to avoid payment of BAHRAIN
transit dues for imports into SAUDI-ARABIA. The British Government is anxious that
the oil should be piped to BAHRAIN and refined there, as this not only gives us control of
all oil found in this district, but obviates the loss of transit dues to BAHRAIN which would
follow the establishment of a deep-water port on the HASA coast. The question is still in
abeyance.
MUSCAT and OMAN
The Sultanate of MUSCAT and OMAN covers the south-eastern portion of ARABIA
with a coast line about 1,500 miles long. Its western coastal boundary with the HADHRA
MAUT is now generally accepted as being at RAS DHARBAT ALI in Lat. 16° 34' N., Long.
52° 49' E. In the PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and GULF of OMAN the tertitory adjoins that of the
Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , though actual boundaries are difficult to define. In the GULF of OMAN the
most northern coastal point is taken as KHOR KALBA. At the same time the tip of the
RUUS AL JABAL peninsula lying to the north of a line drawn from DIBAH to SHA’AM
owes nominal allegiance to OMAN (Plan 2).
Inland the territory of the Sultan extends to the borders of the Great Desert, but of late
years the Omanis of the interior have become virtually autonomous. GUADUR, a port
on the BALUCHISTAN coast, and a small tract of country round it, also owe allegiance to
MUSCAT.
The country, much of which is arid and desert, reaches a height of 10,000 ft. in JEBBEL
AKHDHAR. The population is chiefly Arab, with a strong infusion of negro blood from
ZANZIBAR, which formerly belonged to MUSCAT, especially along the coast.
The Sultan is an independent potentate who has commercial treaties with FRANCE
(1844), the UNITED STATES of AMERICA (1833) and GREAT BRITAIN ; also a com
mercial declaration (1877) with HOLLAND. Under the Anglo-French Declaration of 1862,
H.M. Government and the French Government engage reciprocally to respect the independence
of the Sultan. Under his treaty relations with H.M. Government, the Sultan is pledged never
to cede, sell, mortgage or otherwise give for occupation, his dominions, save to H.M. Govern
ment. His Highness has further undertaken not to grant oil concessions without the approval
of H.M. Government. The Government of INDIA pays to the MUSCAT State a permanent
subsidy of about £6,480, originally granted in 1861 as compensation for the abandonment of
MUSCAT claims over ZANZIBAR ; this will continue so long as the Sultan fulfils his treaty
engagements and manifests his friendship towards the British Government.
While, however, the Sultan is in theory a wholly independent ruler, since the end of the
18th century British influence has been predominant in MUSCAT, and in practice the relations
which obtain between its ruler and H.M. Government and the Government of INDIA very
closely approximate to those which obtain between the Government of INDIA and an Indian
State under the suzerainty of His Majesty.
The present Sultan is His Highness Sir Saiyid Said bin Taimura, K.C.I.E., the son of the
former Sultan, who abdicated in January, 1932.
At the commencement of his reign he took over the internal administration of MUSCAT
from a Council of Ministers and showed himself an able and active, if somewhat obstinate,
ruler. In 1935, however, he absented himself from his capital (MUSCAT) and has since been
living at DHOFAR, in the extreme southern area of his Sultanate, enjoying the life of a country
gentleman and spending large sums of the impoverished State’s revenues. His uncle, Saiyid
Shahib, acts as Regent, but the Sultan delegates little authority to him, whilst taking scarcely
any interest in the welfare of the country himself. His conduct has led to much discontent
in MUSCAT and the surrounding district.