Page 328 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

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87. In 1S82 the French Company de Steamers dc t'Oucst Mesnier & Co.
started a steamer service to the east in­
Secret, Juno 188a.
cluding the Persian Gulf. Their principal
agency was to be at Basrah under Mr. S. Asfar. The Company had a fleet of
10 steamers. When the service ceased, our records do not show.
88. In 1882 M. Boital obtained a concession for the construction of a rail­
way from Resht to Tehran. In 1883 a
Concession to M. Boital for Railway to the Gulf,
1863-83. new concession was granted to him for
Secret E., June 1883. No 287- making a line to Bushire. The principal
„ E., Augmt 1883, Nos. 10-13. feature of these concessions was that they
„ E., January 1884, No. 209.
disregarded Reuter’s claims. M. Boital
claimed to make the railways without asking for any guarantees. But he was
unable to raise the necessary funds without guarantees, and the Shah, unwilling
to give the guarantees demanded, annulled the concessions.
89. In 1885 a French Scientific Mission under the direction of Mons.
Dieulafoy and Mudame Dieulafoy, was sent
Prenth Scientific Mission to Arabistan.
to Khuzistan. The party arrived at Bushire
External A., March 1885, Nos. 184-185.
on 31st January 1885 and thence proceeded
to Khuzistan by way of Basrah and Mohammerah.
90. In 1889 a French Railway Scheme, the line to go from Samson to
Diarbekir and thence to Baghdad and
A Punch Railway Scheme, iSSq,
Basrah, was proposed for the sanction of
Secret E., December 1889, N01. 9^-99.
the Porte. But the terms were not accept­
able to the Turkish Government and the scheme fell through.
91. A French Vice-Consul was reported to have been appointed at Bushire
in 1889, but - when the Vice-Consulate
French Vice-Consul at Bushire, iSSg.
ceased to exist, it cannot be found para.
Secret B , April 1889, Nos. 189-192.
101 below').
92. In 1891 a Frenchman by name Chapuy, who had resided in various
Proceedings of Chapuy. places in the Gulf for the past eight years,
" half aventurer, half merchant and wholly
Secret E., July 1892, Nos. 24-25.
intriguer/’ as Colonel Ross described him,
paid with another Frenchman named Thorny three visits to Umm-ul-Kowein,
apparently for the purpose of purchasing shells, but really to gain an ascendancy
over the Chief in French interests. An interesting account of his career in the
Gulf is given in a demi-official of Major
Ibid, K. W.
Talbot dated 29th September 1891, which
throwsmuch side-light into the affairs in the Gulf and is therefore printed below
Memorandum of information about M. Cbapui.
Mons. alias Captain Chapui came to Muscat in the latter part of 1881, having previ­
ously visited it from Mauritius in a small sailing ship of which he was the owner and Captain,
and at first gave out tnat he was the representative of a large firm in Marseilles, and was
also engaged to supply the Paris Chamber of Commerce with information about the trade
of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
In order to impress people, he kept up a largish establishment and lived somewhat
extravagantly. By permission of the Sultan he lived in the upper story of the Custom
House, which he put in habitable condition at considerable expense. He was allowed
to put up a small flagstaff on the top of the Custom House for signalling purposes.
For some time his business did not go beyond collecting and drying fish, and he
travelled a good deal between Muscat, Kuriyat, Gwadur, and Charbar, with no apparent
result. He probably hoped to establish a trade between Muscat and the Mauritius on
credit, but the Banias of Muscat would not accommodate him. Once he bought goods
worth Rs. 16,000 for a sailing ship from the Mauritius consigned to him : they were sold
to hiui'On the understanding that they should be paid for before the ship sailed ; but as M-
Chapui was unable to pay the merchant lodged a complaint at the British Consulate, it
was referred to the Consular Agent for France at Muscat, and M. Chapui was obliged to
surrender the bills of lading to the owner of the goods. After this affair, at the end of
1882 the merchants declined to have any dealings with him.
In the early part of 1883 he proceeded to Bunder Abbas leaving a Portuguese clerk in
charge at Muscat
In the course pf that year he managed to get the Agency at Muscat of the Bombay and
Persia Steam Navigation Company's Steamers, which only occasionally touched there. *°

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