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The India Office in expressing the special acknowledgments of Lord George
Hamilton for the full and clear information contained in the case laid before the
Law Officers by the Board of Customs, further stated that—
" It is clear that as the law stands, very little control can be exercisod in the country
over the trade in arms and ammunition to the Persian Gulf."
The Secretary of State for India in a Despatch (Secret No. 15), dated a8th
April 1899, forwarded, for the information of the Government of India, a copy of a
letter from the Admiralty, dated 17th April, drawing special attention to the very
large shipments of arms and ammunition to the region of the Persian Gulf during
the last four months. It was mentioned that in consequence of the standing
of the law at home, it was impossible to compel the disclosure of the names of
supplies and consignees of arms shipped from English ports, and that therefore
little effective control could be exercised on the trade. Lord George Hamilton
went on to say that the consequences of this large trade in arms and ammunition
deserved anxious consideration. So long as large quantities of arms and ammuni­
tion reached Oman and the'Persian Gulf and were disposed of by whatever means,
there would be the probability of their passing into the hands of the population
of the southern provinces of Persia, this at the same time increasing the disorder
and insecurity of those provinces and decreasing the power of the Persian
authorities to cope with the evil.
There would also be the risk of a portion of the traffic reaching Afghanistan,
and passing into the hands of the turbulent tribes of the North-West Frontier of
the Punjab, or with the dominions of the Khan of Kelat, thereby aggravating the
difficulties of the Indian Government in the task of preserving peace on the
frontier and peace and order in the territory of Baluchistan.
For checking the traffic which might tend to produce these consequences,
it appeared that Her Majesty’s Government must at present mainly depend on
the co-operation of the Persian Government, on the willingness of the local
authorities to carry out the instructions of that Government, and on their power to
make those orders effective.
Importation of Arms from Maskat to the Italian Protectorate on
the Benadir Coast, 1899.
53. In April 1899, the British Consul-General at Zanzibar wrote stating that
the Italian Consul-General had informed
Secret E., November 1699, Nos. 37—
40. him that a considerable quantify of arms
and ammunition had recently been imported
into the Italian Protectorate on the Benadir Coast, but that he could not give
any particulars as to the description or number of rifles imported, but' he said he
had been informed by a Somali, who had confessed to participating in the traffic,
that they had come in dhows from Maskat and Jibuti, but more specially from
Maskat.
The Consul at Zanzibar had informed his Italian colleague that the trade in
arms and ammunition between Africa and Oman was one which His Majesty’s
Agents in both countries had always done their best to stop, but that although he
felt confident that any attempt at their exportation from the port of Maskat
would be defeated by the vigilance exercised there by British cruisers and officials,
it was very probable that the trade might be carried on with some of the smaller
ports in Southern Arabia, over which it was impossible to maintain any adequate
surveillance.
In replying to this letter, Major Fagan said that he gathered that there
was a misapprehension as to the nature of orders issued to British officials of war
in Maskat waters regarding the arms traffic. The instructions were to seize any
arms or ammunition (found on vessels flying the British, Persian or Maskat flags)
destined for Persia or British India, but that no authority existed for interfering
with any arms traffic that might exist between Maskat and any portion of Africa.
Further in a Despatch No. ai6, dated the and November 1S99, we informed
the Secretary of State that—
u There is ground|for believing that the apprehensions of the Italian Consul-General
are not altogether unfounded, and that a traffic in arms Is actually carried on between
the smaller ports of the Sultanate and the African Coast. We are now making endeavours
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