Page 608 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

8 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN uULF
In the spring, negotiations with France being understood to have como
to nought, suggestions were made to the Government of India that the time
had come for a review of the position. It was decided that it was still
advisable, if possible, not to break with the Sultan, but to make another
attempt to induce him, pending settlement with France, to give us whole­
hearted co-operation in the endeavour to reduce the traffic to its legitimate
dimensions. This policy was approved in principle by His Majesty’s Gov­
ernment and the Resident was ultimately authorised to have a straight talk
with His Highness the Sultan and endeavour to induce him, in return for a
substantial increase in his subsidy, to agree to introduce, as a municipal
measure of internal administration, an arrangement under which all arms
imported into Maskat in future would be deposited in a special Customs
magazine and only issued under a system of license and strict registration.
Although* himself preferring the alternative (at present impracticable under
Treaty) of total prohibition, the Sultan, after several days’ discussion with
the Resident and Political Agent, in November 1911, signified his acceptance
in principle of the Government of India’s proposals, in return for an increase
of one lakh of rupees per annum in his subsidy and the payment of a lakh in
cash down. Negotiations for the elaboration of this scheme were still in
progress at the conclusion of the year.
Negotiations for the renewal and revision of the Commercial Treaty
between Great Britain and the Maskat State were also started during the
year; but with the Sultan, reduced to a most difficult and irritable frame of
mind as the result of the abnormal state of affairs produced by our Arms
Blockade, the satisfactory settlement of the numerous new points for discus­
sion in the new Treaty was found to represent an extremely difficult one for
a newly-arrived Political Agent to tackle. It was therefore decided between
His Highness and the Resident and generally approved by Government that
the old Treaty should be considered in force for a period longer, up to two
years if necessary, during which the various points for revision would be
taken up leisurely as suitable opportunities offered. It is proposed to proceed
therewith as socd as the more urgent negotiations in connection with the Arms
Traffic have terminated.
The affairs of Oman pursued the usual tenour of their way and call for
no special comment in this review.
His Highness, like the Shaikh of Kuwait, and other notables of the
Gulf, was undoubtedly disappointed at not receiving an invitation to His
Majesty’s Durbar at Delhi, but the reasons for the inability of Government
to extend the invitation to Potentates beyond India was duly explained to him
and when the time came he co-operated cordially with the Political Agent in
celebrating the occasion in Maskat.
His son, Saiyid Taimur bin Faisal, who it will be remembered attended
the Durbar in 1803 on behalf of his father, took the trouble to proceed to
Bombay to have toe honour of witnessing Their Majesties’ arrival.
At present the general situation on the Trucial Coast constitutes a
political nettle which will need to be
Troeu} Ozne.
firmly grasped before long, but which
in the meantime it is difficult to handle gently with impunity. Several
causes, some local, some general, have combined to produce these conditions;
firstly, we have had to reckon with the after-effects of the Dcbai incident of
December 1910, and the impression which has since got abroad that the
resolute attitude of the inhabitants of Debai on that occasion successfully
deterred the British Government from pursuing measures for the consolida-
tion of our influence on that coast which we then had in contemplation;
secondly, we have seen an inconvenient development of the Arms Traffic
problem presented by the transfer of the bulk of the trade from the Oman-
Mekran region to the Upper Gulf, with the Trucial Coast as the main centre
of radiation, a development which is now subjecting the Shaikhs and people
of the Trucial Coast to the same process of rapid demoralisation which we
have already witnessed in the cases of Maskat and Southern Persia.
# Lastly, the Trucial Principalities have not been immune from the anta­
gonising influence of the spirit of pan-Islamism which has for some time past