"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٥‎٧‎٨] (١٢٦٢/١٠٩٥)

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discharged her cargo near that place, notwithstanding that the Customs
steamer a Muzaffari^ was in the neighbourhood and that a Customs
official with 8 armed guards had been posted in Bulkhair itself. In Sep
tember 1907 the trade was particularly brisk at Bushehr, the principal
smuggler being, apparently, the Persian Commandant of Artillery.
While the trade was thus but imperfectly checked at the two extrem
ities of the Persian coast, arms were believed to be pouring in without let
or hindrance through the intermediate Shibkuh ports, where the Customs
had either no representatives at all, or only such as were dependent
for their safety upon the local Shaikhs to whom they were accredited.
The trade in the Gulf of 'Oman and British endeavours to suppress
the same, 1905-1907.
Importation
into Persian
Makran,
1905.
Attempts to
cope with the
trade by
naval meanp,
1905-1906.
Commander
Somerville's
report.
The subject of the arms trade in the Gulf of 'Oman, as distinguished
from the Gulf of Persia, cannot be separated, after 1905, from the history
of the measures by which the British Government sought to check it,
and we shall accordingly treat of the two together.
In October 1905 it was found that the importation of arms into
Makran was taking place chiefly through the coast villages of Tank and
Galag; and it was observed that the number of arms in the interior had
very greatly increased, especially in the neighbourhood of Dizak. Sardar
Sir Nauroz Khan, Nausherwani, of Kharan, was said to be an extensive
purchaser of the newer kinds of rifles, among which were now some of
German patterns.
The problem of preventing the despatch of arms from Masqat to the
Persian coast, or otherwise of intercepting the consignments en route,
was carefully considered by the British naval authorities in the Persian
Gulf during the winter of 1905-1906. During the month of Jan
uary 1906, H. M. S. "Redbreast," Commander H. B. T. Somerville, lay
continually at Masqat,—an arrangement by which the trade was for
the moment completely stopped, but at the cost of immobilising a ship.
At the end of February and beginning of March 1906, under the orders
of Vice-Admiral E. S. Poe, Naval Commander-in-Chief, the Makran coast
was carefully watched by H. M. S. " Fox/' which kept in close touch
with Chahbar ; but no captures were effected.
After some experience of Masqat and the Makran coast Commander
Somerville reported, as the result of his observations, that the season of
transporting arms across the Gulf extended from November to March;
that a native vessel could make the passage in about 36 hours in a moder
ate Shamal; that Friday, after general prayers, was a favourite time of
departure from Masqat; that Galag, on account of its proximity to the
Karwan district, was the chief port of entry on the Makran side, but that
Tank, and to a lesser extent the mouths of the Rapch and Sadaich rivers
and the western side of Chahbar Bay, were also frequented by smugglers
0 f arms; and that it was the practice to store the imported arms at places
ield a