Page 429 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

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Seizure of Arms at BusKfe by the Persian authorities. The British
Resident asked to interfere, 1893.
21. In December, 1893, the Agent of Messrs. David Sassoon & Co., at
Bushirc, asked for the good offices of the
Pro., External A., March 1894, Nos. Resident in the Persian Gulf with a view
9 ' to obtaining the release of 17 cases of arms
and ammunition which had been sent from London consigned to Messrs. Towell
& Co., of Maskat, but which had been seized at Bushire under orders of the
Sadr-i-Azam of Persia. The Resident proposed replying that he saw no sufficient
grounds to interfere in the case. It was remarked that the Persian authorities
were no doubt justified in their action, for they were probably aware that there
was no real control over arms imported into Maskat once they left the importer's
hands and that such arms were bought by the Maskat shopkeepers and smuggled
into the zone of the Brussels Act.
22. The question as to whether some means could not be adopted to check
the trade in arms at Maskat was again discussed, and it was remarked that there
was little doubt that arms and ammunition imported into Maskat were smuggled
from there into Yemen and on to the East Coast of Africa. The control at present
exercised by the Government of India was limited to consignments of arms which
entered Maskat after transhipment from British India ;—over direct shipments,
which must be considerable as the duty thereon was said to form the Sultan’s
principal source of revenue, we had no control. It was not iced that the German
Government had issued a prohibition against the importation of arms, etc., into the
Persian Gulf region for fear of their being smugged within the zone of the Brus­
sels Act. It was remarked, however, that should we issue a similar prohibition,
the trade would not be checked to any material extent and we should advantage
the trade of France, Holland and America who had treaty engagements with the
Sultan under which they were guaranteed the benefit of the most-favoured-nation
clause.
It was decided, that taking into consideration the fact that pending the
receipt of instructions from the«Home Government, we were not moving in the
matter of applying to the Gulf, the General Act of the Brussels Conference, we
might for the present confine ourselves to simply approving of the Political Resi­
dent's proposal not to interfere to recover from the Persian authorities the. arms
intended for Maskat.
Reported large consignments of arms for the Sultan of Maskat and
the Chief of Abu Dhabi, 1893. Measures taken to prevent tran­
shipment at Bombay.
23. In October, 1893, the Consul-General at Bushire addressed the customs
officials at Bombay with reference to a
Pro., Secret E„ March 1894, Nos. Frenchman called Captain Chapny who
466-472. had jjeen trading for some years in a specu­
lative fashion in the Persian Gulf. It was reported that Chapny had ordered
some 4,000 rifles for Maskat and the chief of Abu Dhabi and that he had
received a large sum for them as an advance. The arms and ammunition were
to be brought from France to Bomba/and there transhipped in Chapny’s steamer
11 Esther" for conveyance to Maskat and the Persian Gulf.
In January, 1894, the Collector of Customs, Bombay, informed the Consul-
General at Bushire that a case containing 27 rifles had been seized by the
Preventive Department. That it was misdescribed as hardware and intended for
transhipment to Bushire, and that it might possibly belong to Chapny’s consign­
ment of arms.
i
The trade in arms at Maskat. Representations by the Persian Gov­
ernment that arms for Oman should not go via Persian Ports, !
1895. :
24. In February, 1895, the Political Agent, Maskat, referring to his previously
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Zanzibar, the trade would continue through
2963 B