Page 466 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

4*
If, therefore, the Sultan was to be induced to prohibit the import and export
of arms to and from Maskat, it would be necessary to obtain the consent of the
French and United States Governments to the revision of their treaties. There
might be difficulty in persuading France to fall in with our views, since in 1897,
when the Sultan proposed to raise the import duty on arms from 5 to 7 J per
cent., the French Government refused to consent to the change on the ground
that it involved a modification of the tariff presented by the Treaty of 1844.
Transhipment of small parcels of arms and ammunition intended
for personal use.—Notification, 1902.
77. In regard to the transhipment of small parcels of arms and ammunition
for personal use the following Notification issued dated the 31st July 1902 :—
Notification.—I3y the Government of India in the Home Department.
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 27 of the Indian Arms Act,
1878 (XI of 1878), the Governor General in Council is pleased to direct that
the following proviso be added to the Notification of the Government of India in
the Home Department, No. 967, dated the 13th April 1900, namely:—
“ Provided that nothing in this Notification shall be deemed to apply to small parcels
of arms or ammunition in respect of which the Persian Consul-General in London has
certified in writing that permission has been granted by the Persian Government for their
importation into Persia, and that they are intended in good faith for the private and per­
sonal use of the consignee."
In forwarding a copy of this Notification to the India Office, the Govern-
mant of India requested that the Persian Consul-General might be instructed to
state, in the certificates issued by him, that permission had been granted by the
Persian Government for the importation of the arms and ammunition into Persia,
and that they were intended in good faith for the private and personal use of the
consignee.
The question of approaching the French Government regarding the
Maskat arms traffic, 1902.
78. On the 11 th October 1902, the Political Agent, Maskat, in reporting
certain remarks made by the French Consul
Secret E., March 1903, Nos. 58—66.
regarding the arms traffic in which the
latter had enquired—" are there no means by which this trade can be stopped ? ”
—asked whether the opportunity could not now be taken to come to an arrange­
ment on the subject with the French Government.
The Secretary of State was addressed on the subject in Despatch No. 9 of
1903. It was pointed out that Mons. Lorance stated that he was prepared to
support any proposal which might be made for the prohibition of the importation
of arms into Maskat, and he expressed the opinion that the French Government
would probably co-opcrate towards this end with the other Powers concerned.
Without attaching undue importance to these utterances, His Majesty’s Govern­
ment were invited to consider whether
* Vide Secret Despatch No. 5 (Ex­
ternal),* dated the 9th January 1902. negotiations might not now be instituted
in the manner already* indicated.
79. The opinions of Commander Kemp, Senior Officer in Persian Gulf,' on
the Arms Traffic were embodied in a report dated the nth September 1902,
which was as follows:—
“ Very little can be done in the way of suppressing the traffic, while the existing
treaties between Great Britain and Maskat and the French and Maskat remain in their
present form. Our Treaty of 1891, with Maskat states that no prohibition is to be placed
on any imports or exports (not excepting Arms and Ammunition), and the French have a
similar Treaty.
If we use active measures to suppress the trade carried on by our own subjects, then
we drive it all into the hands of foreigners without reducing in it the least and also lose the
little control we have of it at present.
By agreement of 1898 between Great Britain, Persia and Maskat, vessels flying
these flags can be searched within territorial waters if suspected of smuggling arms into