Page 58 - Gulf Precis (III)_Neat

42
No. 1691.E.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

Notification.

Simla, the Oth Auguet 1893.

In virluo of (he powers conferred by section 8 of the u Persian Coast and Islands Order
in Council, 1889,'* and section 12 of the Code of Criminal Procoduro, 1882, ns applied to the
said coast and islands by the said order and with the previous assoDt of the Secretary of State
for India, tho Governor-General in Council is pleased to appoint Mr. Julius Franz Friedrick
Wilhelm Possmaun, Director of Persian Gulf Telegraphs, to bo a Magistrate of the first class
within the local limits of the telegraph stations of Ja*k and Charbaraud along the alignment
of telegraph between these two places being within tho local limits of tho said coast and
islands, and under section 22 of the said Code of Criminal Procedure to appoint him to be a
Justice of tho Peace within the above local limits.
(ii) Murder on high seas on a ship flying British colours and question of jurisdiction
of the British Consular Court, 1893.
193, A caso of murder was brought for trial boforo the British Consular
Court at Maskat in March 1893, in which
Eittrnal A., August 1893, Not. 30-33.
one of the crew of the ship Hutjiayuttshah
that had sailed from Calcutta, had been murdered. Both tho murdered man
and the murderer wore Arabs, aud it was not olear on what authority the ship
flew the British flag.
19 k Dr. Jayakar, Acting Political Agent, beforo whom tho case first
came, thought that tho most advisable course would be to transfer the case to
the Sultan, before whom tho witnesses could easily he summoned and there was
every facility of a full and fair trial.
195. Major Saddler thought that the case being one of murder committed
in the high seas in a ship flying British colours, would be governed by section
267 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 17 and 18 Viet. Chap. 104, Part 3.
196. Colonel Talbot pointed-out that the note on page 451 of Wheaton’s
International Law lays down principles, which tend to show that the Arab ship
referred to could not be considered British merely because she flew British
colours, unless she was owned by naturalized British subjects which was not
apparently tho case. Consequently section 267 of the Merchant Shipping Aot
could not seem to he applicable, as this refers to offences on ships owned by
British subjects. And as, moreover, no failure of justice was anticipated’and
the case would be more expoditiously concluded at Maskat, Colonel Talbot was
of opinion that it might be advantageously committed to the Sultan (Colonel
Talbot to Political Agent, Maskat, No. 19, dated 14th May 1893).
197. The Government of India agreed in Colonel Talbot’s view
(Foreign Department No. 1503-E, dated 15th July 1893).
(iii) Status of Ali-bin-Juma, a Baluchi domiciled in Maskat in respect of (1) natural­
ization aud (2) jurisdiction, 189 5.
198. In a civil suit filed against one Ali-bin-Juma before the Political
Agent, Maskat, the question was raised whether the British Consular Court
had jurisdiction to try the civil suit. The defendant was a Baluchi, who had
a permanent domicile at Maskat, but who had in 1868 obtained at Bombay a
certificate of naturalization, and who since 1872 had been borne on the Con­
sular Register at Maskat as a British subject.
199. The views of the Government of India on tho question were expressed
in their Jotter No. 478-E., duted 2nd March 1895 :—