Page 132 - The Persian Gulf Historical Summaries (1907-1953) Vol IV_Neat

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Tho Government of India have also from time
to time recommended—
(1.) That the French Government should he
approached with a view to their being induced
to agreo to the total prohibition of tho arms
traffic at Muscat; and
(2.) That the Porte should ho asked to agree to
our patrolling the Turkish littoral against arms
smugglers, or at least to declare tho illegality of
tho traffic.

Neither of these suggestions has hitherto Govommontof
borne fruit. Tho question was passed in review India’s letter of
Fobruary 21,1907.
by tho Government of India as recently as
February 1907, and the conclusion at which
they arrived, after a careful and detailed ex­
amination of the caso, was that tho arms traffic
would continue to flourish aud increase until an
Agreement with Franco was arrived at, and a
complete prohibition was enforced against the
importation of arms and ammunition into the
territories of the Sultan of Muscat. The whole
question will come up for discussion at the forth­
coming International Conference at Brussels.
Under the Brussels Act of 1890 for regulating
the traffic in arms, anyone of the Signatory Towers
that has occasion to authorize such traffic in
territories of its own lying within the region
nlTccted by the provisions of the Act, is required
to establish a “ public warehouse,” under the
control of its local Administration, in which all
imported arms must bo deposited, and from
which they may not ho withdrawn without the
previous authorization of the Administration.
There seems no hope of obtaining the consent
of France, and the other Powers having Treaty
relations with Muscat, to the Sultan’s prohibiting,
proprio molu, the import of arras into his
dominions. The only remedy for the present
evil would, therefore, appear to be to bring
Muscat, at the forthcoming Conference, within
tho scope of the Brussels Act of 1890, and to
enforce there tho provisions requiring the
establishment of a warehouse under proper
supervision.
If this is done, two questions will arise
(a.) What inducement shall be offered to the
Sultan, a Sovereign whose independence has
been guaranteed by Great Britain and France, to
accept restrictions on a traffic amounting to