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TREATY RELATIONS OF MUSCAT 51

2. Conflict over the Muscat dhows: the Hague arbitration, 8 August
1905
The French Government initialed, for some years towards the end of the
nineteenth century, the practice of issuing to some subjects of the
Sultan of the Omani coast papers authorising them to fly the French
flag over their own vessels while trading in the Indian Ocean, the
Red Sea and in the Arabian Gulf.1
By virtue of this practice, which was held to be authorised by the
French-Muscat Treaty of 17 November 1844, France claimed to
exercise jurisdiction over those subjects of the Sultan to whom she
extended her flag.
Acting on British advice the Sultan informed the French Vice-
Consul at Muscat on 16 February 1899 that he objected to French
jurisdiction over his subjects and that he considered the French action
in this respectas a violation of the Convention of 1862.2 As the French
Government was not prepared to liquidate its claim, the matter was
brought up in 1905 to the Hague Court of Arbitration for settle­
ment.
In the proceedings at The Hague, the Sultan was kept in the back­
ground while the British Government assumed the role of plaintiff.
This was, probably, on the ground that the dispute arose, in the
British view, from the violation by France of the Convention of 1862,
to which the British Government was a party.
The decision of the Court, which was given on 8 August 1905, can
be summed up as follows:8
1. It upheld the right of France as a sovereign State to allow the
subjects of another sovereign State to fly her flags and to prescribe
the ‘rules governing its use’. Such practice by France, it was stated,
does not derogate from the independence of the Sultan.
2. But, according to Article 32 of the General Act of Brussels of
2 January 1892, France was allowed to grant authority to fly her
flag only to ‘native vessels owned by or fitted out by her subjects or
proteges’.
3. The French treaty with Muscat of 1844 which recognised certain
Omani subjects as French proteges ‘applies only to persons bona fide
in the service of French subjects, but not to persons who ask for ship
papers* to carry commercial trade under the French flag.
4. However, the granting of such papers prior to the ratification of
the Act of Brussels was not held to be contrary to any international
obligation of France.
1 Lorimer, pp. 562-7. 2 Ibid.
’Scott, The Hague Court Reports (1916), pp. 93-100. For the Anglo-French
Agreement of 13 October 1904, in which they agreed to refer the dispute for
arbitration by the Hague Court of Arbitration, see ibid., pp. 101-2.