Page 295 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

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Colonel Ross remarked in conclusion that the various Turkish vessels of war
invariably saluted on all occasions.
100. The Political Agent, Turkish Arabia, replied, No. i^6, dated 6th
December 1879, forwarding a letter from Mr. Robertson, much to the same pur­
port as that of Colonel Ross, that the salutes had practically been left much to the
discretion of the commanders of vessels. Mr. Robertson thought it, politically,
highly desirable that ships should both salute and fly the flags of political officers
when on board in discharge of their duty; and in this opinion Colonel Miles
concurred.
101. Colonel Ross having also sent his correspondence with the Senior
Naval Officer about the new saluting orders to Colonel Miles, forwarded Colonel
Miles’ reply with his No. 392, dated nth November 1879. Colonel Miles con­
sidered that the practical abolition of the Sultan of Maskat’s salute, without a
special request on each occasion made by the Resident, would be undoubtedly
detrimental to His Highness’ prestige, and would lead the Arabs to think he was
in disgrace. Besides this the Sultan would soon know that other Chiefs con­
tinued to get salutes, and this would cause a feeling of irritation which it would
be desirable to avoid. He also thought that as there were occasions when salutes
to political officers had a useful and beneficial effect, it would not be advisable
that they should be abolished as they were practically so by the new order.
102. These reports were forwarded to the Naval Commander-in-Chief, and
in his reply dated 4th April 1S81, he stated
Political A., July 18S1. Not. i7«-i7«-
that an attentive perusal of the corres­
pondence on the subject of firing salutes and carrying flags in the Persian Gulf
led him to think that the difficulties which had arisen on the subject were
caused rather by the caprice of the naval authorities than from any real
necessity.
The real causes of the objection made by the Admiralty to vessels of few
guns firing salutes were shown by him to be the following:—
When the old small smooth-bore guns were superseded by rilled guns of
large calibre, and where one gun took the place of twenty or thirty of the old
guns, the question of salutes became a serious one—
ist.—Because a ship with a few large guns could not fire a salute with
safety to her men.
and.—Because salutes were a cause of considerable detriment to rifled guns
of precision.
The Admiralty, therefore, opened the question with the Foreign Maritime
Powers, and the consequence was an enormous international reduction in salutes,
both on the occasions when required and the number of guns fired, and an order
that the old rule, of ships with few guns not saluting, was to be more strictly
adhered to.
This being now the established rule all over the world, the Naval Com-
mander-in-Chief saw no reason why it should be broken in the Persian Gulf, and
he thought that, without any great detriment to the public service, saluting,
except under most extraordinary circumstances, might be abolished for the
present.
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Meanwhile, and as it would perhaps be unwise to lay down a hard-and-fast
rule that Her Majesty’s vessels were not to salute at all, he suggested that the
Residents should be requested to be as chary as possible in asking for salutes.
103. As regards the question of officials carrying a flag when embarked on
board men-of-war, it appeared to the Naval Commander-in-Chief that the
meaning of such an emblem was not understood. He observed that such a flag
was rarely carried in European waters, and then only to denote respect for the
high position or great office of the personage on board—the standard of England
to denote the presence of Royalty—thc Admiralty flag to denote the presence
of the Lords of the Admiralty ; while in the Persian Gulf every official hoisted the
flag of the Viceroy which, when seen afloat by a man-of-war, was entitled to a
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