File 3939/1926 Pt 6 'Revision of Aitchison's Treaties. Persian Gulf Section.' [‎642r] (719/818)

12
OMAN (MUSCAT).
In December 1895 a rebellion broke out at Dhofar, where the rebels
obtained possession of the town and province. Finding himself unable
to regain possession, the Sultan asked the British Government to help
him to recover his position. The 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. , with the Lawrence
and Bossack, pitoceeded to Dhofar, whither 400 troops under Saiyid
Muhammad bin Turki were also despatched. The rebels came to terms
and handed over possession without bloodshed. t
In 1898 the Sultan agreed to co-operate with the British and Persian'
Governments in the suppression of the illegal importation of arms into
Persia and British India, and issued a Proclamation authorising British
and Persian men-of-war to search in Muscat waters vessels flying the
British, Persian or Muscat flags, and to confiscate arms proved to be
destined for British Indian and Persian ports.
In 1897/ the Sultan granted a lease to the French Government of the
harbour of Bandar Jisseh, about seven miles south of Muscat, as a coaling
station. On the receipt of a protest from the British Government against
this action as constituting a breach of the Sultan’s treaty engagements,
he decided to cancel the lease. The matter was satisfactorily settled by
the grant to the French Government of a moiety of the area of the
British coal depot in the Makulleh cove of Muscat harbour. In 1921 the
French Government renounced their rights in it to the Sultan, who
granted the use of the site to the British Government.
In 1899 the attention of the Sultan was drawn to the extent to which
the practice of granting French flags, and therewith a claim to French
protection, to Omani subjects had increased. The use of French flags
by the people of Sur had gradually become so prevalent a& to constitute!
a serious encroachment on the integrity and independence of Oman.
^Accordingly in February 1899 the Sultan wrote to the French flag holder^
in Sur enjoining them to give up their flags: and at the same time
informed the French Vice-Consul at Muscat that he did not recognize the
right of the French to exercise jurisdiction over Omani subjects in Oman.
During a visit which the Sultan paid to Sur in the following year the
Suri French flag holders spontaneously presented him with a written
agreement * in which they renounced the benefits of French protection,
* Translation of document voluntarily passed by the Jenebeb and Beni Abu Ali,
French Hag holders at Sur, in which they express their wish and intention to
relinquish French protection from date, dated lidh June 191X1
Let it be known to all who see these words that we, natives of Sur, who have
been domiciled in the place from the days of our fathers and forefathers, consider,
ourselves the subjects of His Highness Sultan Feysal-bin-Turki-bm-Saeed we are
his vassals and under his protection, and we wish to render him
end obedience which it is the duty of subjects (to render to thei J ®
accordinelv those of us who have taken French flags will return them to thlt
Governme nt at the beginning of the corning year (that ft
after monsoon), and, moreover, if their Consul (at Muscat) will accep, them on
us we are ready to return them at once in oroer to save ourselves the incon
venience and loss ot time (which would result if we took Jo Zanzibar ete-b
We do this without any pressure being put upon us and without compuLion,