Page 479 - Gulf Precis(VIII)_Neat

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Instructions to Naval Officers in the Persian Gulf with reference to
the Arms Traffic.

/V^.The Admiralty in addressing the Naval Commander-in-Chief, East India
Station, on 23rd June 1904, relative to the searching of British ships suspected
of trafficking in arms in contravention of Article 8 of the General Act of the
Brussels Conference, informed him that the Brussels Act did not itself confer any
powers of search or detention for the enforcement of the Article referred to.
This being so, His Majesty’s ships have therefore, no authority to search or
detain suspected vessels apart from the powers conferred upon them within
British territorial waters under local regulations, or in the territorial waters of the
Italian Protectorate and in Persian and Maskat waters in virtue of the special
arrangement made with the Governments of these countries respectively. The
Admiral was also informed that the telegraphic information sent to him from
time to time with regard to vessels leaving England with consignments of arms
and ammunition, was intended for use in the event of their trafficking within the
Territorial waters above mentioned, and not with a view to any action being taken
in regard to these vessels on the High Seas.

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