Page 50 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

PART H—CHAPTER XI.
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8. Muscat must, for the present, be excepted from the category of nourish­
ing ports. Her impoverishment is due in part to frequent revolution and inter­
tribal feud ; in part to the fact that her position was formerly of more importance
when it was the point where cargoes were exchanged between the native craft of
the littorals and square-rigged vessels; and in part also to the circumstance of the
separation of the combined state of Zanzibar and Muscat into two distinct
States—a circumstance which naturally tended to reduce the sea-borne traffic and
communication between these two outlying portions of one Sultanat. But even
in regard to Muscat, it should be borne in mind that, while the total of her trade
is sadly reduced by the unsettled political condition, this falling off has been felt
more by the Native merchants than by our British Indian traders residing at
Muscat. There arc, I believe, only two or three Native Arab merchants still
doing business, or even residing in Muscat; the rest of such trade as there is, is
in the hands of Hindoos and Khojahs.
9. While on this topic, it may not Ue irrelevant to observe that Muscat is
not in the Persian Gulf, but in that of Oman, and that the public Press are mis-,
taken in criticizing the Muscat affairs as forming a portion of those of the Persian
Gulf: little less so, indeed, than was a gentleman who once considered the Ara­
bian Gulf or Red Sea to be that for which the Government had undertaken the
responsibilities resting on it in relation to the Persian Gulf.
10. The British India Steam Navigation Company are, I believe, desirous of
running a line of steamers connecting the Gulf line with Aden, touching en route
at Muscat, Mukalla, and other ports on the Arabian Coast. My opinion is that
Muscat should be visited by this line, and that the main Gulf line from Kurrachee
to Bussorah should be direct, touching at the telegraph stations of Gwadur,
Charbar, and Jask, along the coast to the entrance of the Mussendom Straits,
and subsequently at Bunder Abbas, Angaum, Bushire, and Bussorah. The main
coal station should be at Angaum, and so save the expense of -carrying coal up
the Gulf to Bussorah. The Aden line should join the Gulf line at Bunder Abbas
or Angaum. If at Angaum, the Gulf line should ignore Bunder Abbas, and feed
it by a supply steamer from Angaum, Lingah, and the other ports on the Arab
littoral, viz., Rasoolkhymeh, Ejman, Ommelgavain, Shargah, Debay, Aboothabee,
Bahrein, and Koweit, should be looked to by supply steamer, both because their
average several cargoes would be small in bulk (although in the case of pearls
costly) ; and secondly, because the sea lino of these ports is shallow, and therefore
adapted to vessels of light draught.
11. Government arc probably informed of the asserted intention on the part
of the French to open a line from Suez to Bussorah so soon as the Lesseps canal
shall admit. A French Agent who recently toured from Muscat to the Shut-ool
Arab reported, I understand, very favourably on the productive powers and
facilities for trade of the regions at the head of the Gulf.
12. There is in prospect, also, the opening of some line, whether of rail entire,
or of rail combined with river and canal communication, between the head of the
Gulf and the Mediterranean, and I have recently had an interesting conversation
on this subject with the Turkish Director of Public Works in the Pashalik of
Bagdad.
13. No one who has observed and studied the development of trade and
progress and of political events since the time when I first served in Sindh in
1841, can be blind to the great potential importance of the line connecting
Kurrachee with Europe, via not the so-called Euphrates fine without deviation,
but via some line connecting the Persian Gulf with the Mediterranean by the
Tigris or the Euphrates, or by canals, or by one or other, or by all of these com­
bined, with connecting intervals of rail.
14. I forbear troubling Government with statistical statements because I
know how figures mislead, unless they are based on reliable accounts, and such
are not at present available in these regions for the general trade.
15. But the constant increase in the number of steamers, the comparative
small falling-off in native craft, the contentment of the merchants, the increased
rate of mule hire, the increasing number of solid houses at the ports, and the