'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎163r] (330/386)

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requested him to appoint some other person to be the medium of communication
between them.
12. The publicity on which Lieutenant-Colonel Meade insisted, went, as
has been remarked, further than we had contemplated, and mi^ht possibly be
represented as unnecessary for the execution of the object in view. Before,
however, such a criticism be passed, it would be fair to regard the circumstances
from a local as well as from a wider point of view. No pvrt of the proceedings
has more impressed upon the Sultan and upon his people the gravity of the
situation which H'S Highness’s late ac ion had brought upon him, or has had
a greater effect in clearing from his mind the misconception of his position
which he owed to the promptings of advisers intent upon alienating His High
ness from his ancient alliance. It is, perhaps, impossible for a petty ruler
of an Oriental State, such as the Sultan of Maskat, to realise his position
in relation to powerful foreign Governments, or to understand the limits of
diplomatic action based upon the principle of equal treatment; and he had
undoubtedly been led to regard the presence and proceedings during the past
five years of a representative of France at Maskat as an encouragement to him
self m a course of action dictated less by a vindication of his own independence
than by disregard of his obligations to Great Britain.
13. If the question were asked on what grounds other than those of
increasing their poliiicnl influence the French should wish to establish a coaling
station on the coast of Oman, it is one which the subjects of the Sultan and the
Sultan himself would probably find some difficulty in answering, and to which
we are ourselves unable to suggest a reply. Coal, for the requirements of the
very rare visits of French men-of-war, when asked for, is readily supplied from
our* sheds As a matter of fact the French gun boat which visited Maskat in
October, did not coal there at all. French trade, as has been pointed out, is
insignificant, even when the returns include that which is carried in those quasi-
French bottoms whose claim to nationality is supported by t he peculiar device of
presenting the Commanders with a French flag. French steampships, other
than those of the Navy, are hardly known in the Gulf. In the year 1897,
not a single French steamship entered the harbours of Oman. Nor is the
solution simplified by a scrutiny of the action of the French themselves. If a
coal depot were wanted, there is no apparent reason for secrecy, for establishing
it in another locality than the port of trade, or for considering, throughout the
greater part of a year subsequent to obtaining permission for its establishment,
at which spot on the coast it would be best to locate it.
Id. We venture to think, however, that the entire question should be
regarded not merely in its local application, but also from the wider stand-point
o^national interest, and of the influence which may legitimately be claimed, not
alone by party of treaty right, hut by the concrete facts of history and geogra
phy, by Great Britain and France respectively in Oman. If French susceptibil
ities have been offended bv the firm vindication of British interests in the leeent
occurrences at Maskut, we on our part have, we consider, far more valid and more
solid ground for remonstrance against a course of action for which we can imagine
no motive except that of supplanting our influence with the Sultan of. that
country. This influence is as we have shown a century old, and is the legitimate
and inevitable consequence of neighbourhood, of a long course of friendly action,
of close commercial relations, and of the subsidised position in which the Sultan
has now stood for ^5 years towards the Government of India. The recent zeal
of the French can point to no material interests, of w r hosc existence we are
aware, to justify it.
15. The capital of the State of Oman lies itself outside the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; hut
the dominions of the Sultan, which face towards British India on the one side,
extend on the other to the southern shores of that sea, and adjoin the territory
of tribes with all of "whom the British Government lias for years enjoyed treaty
relations. 1 he subjects of the Sultan of Maskat trade in British ports; they
have few relations with foreigners save with British subjects, no other European
Power is anything to them but a name. What passes at Maskat is the talk, less
of the tribes of Eastern Arabia, than it is of the population w ho throng the
wharves of Kurachi and Bombay, Neither the actions of the Sultan nor the