'Administration Reports 1920-1924' [‎38v] (81/412)

58
administration report of the
The Council is composed as follows :
Saiyid Nadir bin Faisal, President of the Council;
Mohammad bin Ahmad, Wall of Muttrah, Einance Minister;
Rashid bin Uzzayiz, Qazi of Muscat;
Znbeir bin Ali, Minister of Justice.
Within their respective spheres the Ministers have complete authority,
T&ut all matters of general importaace can only be decided by the Council as
such. The Council meets twice a week and a secretary has been appointed.
The Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. corresponds w th the Council, and the Sultan, except in
matters affecting him personally or his family, and in foreign affairs, leaves
all administration in their hands. Considering the complete lack of experience
of the members, and the disinclination of all Arabs to do any work, the Council
may be said to be doing its work as well as can be expected,
Tlie Sultan returned to Muscat at the end of November, but has taken no
active part in affairs.
(c) Administration of justice.
It had been remarked in the last report that the court instituted by the
Sultan under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of Saiyd Nadir, as one of the conditions of the
loan, had not proved a success, largely owing to the dilatory personality of the
president. On the arrival of the British adviser Saiyid Nadir resigned and
was replaced by Sheikh Zubeir bin AH. Matters, owing to the unnecessary
elaborateness of the procedure still however proved unsatisfactory, and on the
advice of the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. a simple system was introduced which has worked
expeditiously and to the general popular satisfaction.
As in all Arabian States the Shara or Qazi^s Court is open to all complaints,
written or verbal, civil or criminal. The Qazi decides what he can and sends
on those which he does not think suitable to his court to the Adiliyah or court
of justice under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of Sheikh Zubeir, which also exercises original
jurisdiction on any complaints brought before it. To the Adiliyah are also
referred by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. the cases of British against Arab subjects.
In addition to these regular courts there sits once a week a Majlis-al-Tujjar or
bench of Arab merchants to whom are referred any complicated commercial
cases which the Mahkumah feels it cannot decide.
Justice is free with the exception of a small fee for recording com plants
in the Adiliyah, and a couct-fee of one per cent on the value of civil suits.
The record number of 188 suits by British against Arab subjects have
been decided by the Adiliyah, while what is far more remarkable the suits
decided between Arabs have been more numerous still, and a certain number of
cases involving Omanis have been disposed of.
(d) Defence,
The institution of some sort of levy to uphold the Sultan's authority
and to defend his territories from attack from the interior had been one of the
conditions of the loan. The absurdity of the British position in Muscat, where
we were maintaining a regiment at great expense for the defence of the rotten
and bankrupt administration of an independent State was fully realised,
as was the futility of setting up any government or of instituting any reforms
which did not aim at making the State self-supporting, self-reliant and self-
sufficient. Levies cannot however be created without money.
Directly the State finances began to show signs of being able to;meet such
a charge, proposals were advanced for the formation of a Baluch levy to be
recruited from Mekran or Seistan. The coast population of Oman is largely
Baluch, and such a levy while exciting no comment as Baluchis have regularly
been employed as guards for centuries by Arab rulers in the Gulf, would prove
reliable and loyal compared to the local Arabs, who are intolerant of all form of
discipline and treacherous to an unexampled degree.