ملف ١٣٥٥\ ١٩١٧ الجزء ١ "التسوية السلمية - اتفاقية تجارة الأسلحة لسنة ١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٨‎٠] (٦٠٠/٥٦٤)

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APPENDIX J.
1917
COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.
meeting held at the India Ofliee on Monday the 8th January 1917.
Present:
I•'OiiD Islington (Chairman).
\ ice-Admiral Sir E. Slade (Admiralty).
Sir W illiam I vrrell (Foreign Office).
^\Ia.jor S. S. \\ . Paddon (War Office).
^Ir. H. -I. Read (Colonial Office).
Mr. J. E. Shuckblrgii (India Office) (Secretary).
I. T]i(‘ ([iiestiou was discussed in its general aspect. The view was
taken that, assuming (Germany does not regain lier A frican Colonies after
the Avar, the only European Power whose interest in the arms traflic is
likely to be antagonistic to our own is France. Mr. Read drew attention to
the Draft Convention drawn up at the Brussels Arms Traffic of 1908-09,
which contained the material for a satisfactory solution of the whole
question, so far as Africa is concerned, but which Avas never signed owing
to the opposition of France, although accepted in principle by all the other
Powers represented at the Conference. The Sub-Committee was unanimously
of opinion that an understanding with the French Government, on the arms
question should form part of the general settlement at the end of the war.
'J. The question was then considered with reference to three areas mainly
affected, A'iz. : — (1) Maskat and the Persian Gulf; (2) Jibuti and the East
African littoral ; and (3) West Africa.
8. As regards Maskat, which for many years served as the main
distributing centre of arms, Ac., for the whole Middle East, the situation has
been governed in the past by the fact that the local Sultan has commercial
treaties with the United States (1833) and France (1844) providing for the
unrestricted import and export to and from his territories of all kinds of
merchandise, as well as a ‘‘ Commercial Declaration" concluded with
Holland in 1877, providing for reciprocal “most-favoured-nation ’’ treatment
between the two countries. The Sultan’s international position is further
regulated by the joint Anglo-French Declaration of 1862, by which Great
Britain and France undertook reciprocally to respect the independence of
the ruler of Maskat. Neither Holland nor the United States have shown any
disposition to embarrass us by an assertion of their treaty rights ; indeed,
both Powers agreed at the Brussels Conference to forego their rights in so
far as the arms traffic was concerned, provided the two other Treaty Powers
(Great Britain and France) did the same. Germany is^ not in treaty
relations with Maskat. The great difficulty has been with France, who. up
to 1914, declined to give up her rights under the Treaty of 1844, or to allow
the Sultan a free hand to control the traffic, except on conditions which His
Majesty’s Government were not prepared to accept. France, it should be
S 337 75—3/17