ملف ٨٦٩\١٩٠٤ الجزء ٢ "الاتجار بالأسلحة: - البحر الأحمر، إفريقيا وعدن" [ظ‎‎٨‎٩] (٥٤٠/١٨٧)

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Memorandum from M 4 > 0 E-Gffl<BEAi H. M. Masok, Political Eeeident at Aden, No. 376,.
dated Aden Residency, the 21st January 1906.
Advance copv forwarded with compliments to the Secretary to the
Government of India in the foreign Department, Simla.
Notes of an interview held at Jibouti on Friday, the 5th January 1906, at which were present
Doctor Ormieres, the Governor of Jibouti, General H. M. Mason, the Pohtical Res,-
dent of Aden, General E. J. E. Swayne, H. M.’s Commissioner and Commander-in-
Chief of the Somaliland Protectorate, Commander A. R. Hnlbert, R.N., Senior Naval
Officer of the Aden Division, and Captain F. deB. Hancock, Acting First Ass.stant
Resident to the Political Resident, Aden.
General Mason informed Doctor Ormieres that rifles and ammunition of
Drench manufacture were now both plentiful and cheap within t le limits of
the Aden Protectorate. He referred to the lawless and practically uncivilized
character of the Subehi, and of some of the other tribes of South-Western
Arabia, into whose possession these weapons fell. He referred to the danger
and inconvenience experienced in the Aden Hinterland oumg to the ease uith
which rifles and ammunition would now be obtained throughout the 1 epen ency.
And he invited Doctor Ormieres to consider the possibility ot taking turtner
measures to check the indiscriminate traffic in arms which was, apparently,
still taking place between Jibouti and the littoral of South-Western Arabia.
2. Doctor Ormiferes replied that the export of rifles to the Yemen was
forbidden. He could not, however, afford any definite information as to the
extent of the littoral to which this prohibition extended. He said that every
thing possible was being done to regulate the trade m arms and to restrict the
dissemination thereof on the Somali Coast. He said that only recently i had
come to his notice that component parts of arms were being imported to Jibouti
with a view to evading the customs and other rules on the subject, and that
orders had been issued on the 30th December last to meet this.
3. He appears to recognise the inconvenience arising from the possession
of arms of precision by uncivilized and lawless tribes, and to understand that
the Subehi tribes might occupy in regard to the Aden administration a some
what similar position to that occupied by the Essa tribe of Somalis in regard
to Jibouti. He also appeared to recognise the risk of re-importation to
Somaliland of the arms exported to Arabia. He referred to the similar risk
of the re-importation of the arms supplied to Abyssinia. Only two months ago
he said that there had been a consignment of 1,800 rifles to Has Makomen at
Harrar, and he evidently regarded it as possible that some of these would even
tually find their way back to the coast and into the possession of those who
should not properly possess them.
He also referred to the risk of importation of arms from Muskat in the
Persian Gulf,
4. He referred to the difficulty of exercising an affective control over the
transport of arms by sea in native craft, and seemed well aware of the
various devices resorted to for evading restrictions. He said that he had reason
to believe that the Sultan of Rohaita took some part in the illicit arms traffic,
from which he derived considerable profit. This Sultan he stated occupied a
position which rendered it difficult to exercise an effective control over his
littoral. Till recently he had been a tributary of both the french and the
Italian Governments. Upon a recent representation of the latter he had now
ceased to be a Drench tributary.
5. It was suggested to Doctor Ormieres that with a view to further
checking the illicit traffic in arms it was desirable that the different authorities
concerned should act in concert, and the various rules and regulations issued by
them should be as far as possible similar in effect and general principle.
General Swayne handed him a copy of the Somaliland Dire-arms Regulations,
dated 2nd September 1905, and a comparison of this witii the regulations
issued at Jibouti was invited. In reply Doctor Ormikres stated that the orders