Page 130 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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68 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
afTairs is not based on protectorate relationship, as is the ease with
the Shaikhdoms.1
4. In British state practice Muscat has been treated as an inde­
pendent State. For example, she has not been included within the
category of ‘British Protected States’, as is the ease with the Shaikh­
doms, and British protection cannot, therefore, be extended to Muscati
subjects abroad on the basis of the British Protectorates, Protected
States and Protected Persons Order in Council, 1949.2 However, in
practice British representatives abroad may extend protection to
Muscat citizens in foreign States on an informal and friendly basis.
The British Government is not represented in Muscat by a British
Political Agent, as is the case with the Shaikhdoms, but by a Consul-
General who is for administrative purposes subject to the authority
of the British Political Resident in Bahrain.3 British treaties with
Muscat are published in the British Treaty Series in the same way as
are those with independent States.4 Muscat was not mentioned among
the Shaikhdoms in the Treaty of Jiddah of 1927, between Britain
and Saudi Arabia.5 Nor was it mentioned in the draft Convention of
1913, between Britain and Ottoman Turkey, regarding the definition
of the respective spheres of influence of the contracting parties in the
Gulf States.6
As against the above-mentioned illustrations of Muscat’s inde­
pendence, in law, reference may be made to certain limitations which
the Sultan has accepted upon his sovereignty:

1. The Sultan is still bound by the Agreements of 1822 and 1845,7
regarding the suppression of slave trade. By virtue of these Agree­
ments the British cruisers are given the right to exercise certain limita­
tions on Muscat flag vessels, both on the high seas and in the territorial
waters of Muscat, and to confiscate the vessels and properties of the
Sultan or his subjects if they are found to have violated the provisions
of these Agreements. These Agreements, like other similar agreements
with the Shaikhdoms, entrust rights of supervision in respect of such
.
V matters, to the British Government.
1 In his statement to the Ad Hoc Committee on Oman, op. cit., p. 172, the Sultan
admitted that he has no ‘written agreement with the United Kingdom Govern­
ment concerning its handling of the foreign relations of the Sultanate’. The said
Government, he said, offers its services in this respect on the basis of its ‘long­
standing’ friendship with his country. As regards consular representation in
London, he confirmed that he had none before October 1963. After that date, he
said, a Muscati consul was appointed in London.
2 For the provisions of this Order, see below, p. 123.
3 See above, Introduction.
«See above, p. 52. Similarly, the treaties of Muscat with foreign States have
been registered with the United Nations under Article 102 of the Charter.
: 6 For this treaty, see below, p. 176.
3 « See above, p. 34, n. 3. 7 Sec above, p. 47.
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