Page 131 - Historical Summaries (Persian Gulf) 1907-1953

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Government of (1) a Notification warning Lis subjects that the
February 10,1898. importation of arms and ammunition into India
and Persia was illegal; and (2) a Proclamation
authorizing British and Persian vessels of war to
search, within Muscat territorial waters, vessels
carrying the British, Persian, or M uscat flag, ns
well as Muscat vessels in Indian and Persian
waters, and to confiscate arms and ammunition
intended for Indian and Persian ports.
The right of search docs not extend to the
vessels of other nations, and, as has been stated
above, the terms of his Commercial Treaties render
it impossible for the Sultan, without the consent
of the Treaty Powers, to impose any general
restriction on tho import of arms into Muscat.
In the same year, 1898, with a view to
imposing a further check on the arms traffic in
Oman, rules were issued requiring all British
subjects possessing arms within the Sultan’s
territory to register the same at the British
Consulate. It may bo doubted, however,
whether this measure has done more than throw
the trade to an increasing extent into foreign
hands. In tho same way it seems not unlikely
that the action recently taken by the British
India Steam Navigation Company to check the
smuggling of arms in small quantities by the
Company’s steamers in the Gulf may only result
in diverting traffic of this kind to vessels which
are not placed under such restrictions.*
India Office to It may be added that the import of arms at
Foreign Office,
October 19, 1898. Gwadur, the Sultan of Muscat’s dependency on
the Mckran coast, was prohibited by a Proclama­
tion issued by II is Highness on the 3rd March,
1891.
Government of In March 1901, the Government of India
Iudiu’B letter of
March 31, 1904. proposed that tho terms of the Muscat Proclama­
tion of 1898 should be extended so as to cover
the export of arms to Turkish ports, and to the
territories of the Sheikhs of Bahrein and Koweit,
and of the Trucial Chiefs, as well as to “ Indian
and Pcrsiau ” ports, which already fell within
the scope of the Proclamation. This proposal
was not carried into effect, it being at the time
held undesirable, in view of the Sheikh’s position
in regard to the warfare in Central Arabia,0 to
impose any fresh iestrictions on the importation
Mr. Brodriok'g of arms at Kowoit. The necessary arrangements
telegram of
June 24, 1908. with Turkoy also presented some difficulty.
• See below, under Koweit

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