'Muscat Dhows Arbitration. In the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. Grant of the French Flag to Muscat Dhows. The case on behalf of the Government of His Britannic Majesty.' [‎16v] (41/208)

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entitle the Sultan to invite France immediately to
investigate the circumstanoes under which her
officials have permitted unqualified persons to
obtain the semblance of being French citizeas
or prot(5g^s, and to have the claimants at once
struck off any Consular register on which they
appear, and deprived of any French flags or
papers which they have wrongfully obtained.
It is possible that some confusion may have
been caused on this subject by reference to
diplomatic communities. When diplomatic
exemption from territorial law is claimed, the
declaration of the accredited State is in most, if
not all, cases conclusive of the quality of the
person, of which it has the best means of know
ledge, and the only remaining question is whether
the Embassy has been accepted by the State to
which it is accredited.
In the case of a claim by a native of a country
to be a protege of a foreign Power, otherwise than
by virtue of service to a diplomatic officer, the
natural presumption is against such privilege,
and the officers of the protecting State, while
they may be able to say that they have regis
tered the claimant or done acts purporting
to give him protection, must go further, and
show in what quality and under what Treaty or
principle of international law the claim can be
justified. To admit the absolute right of a
foreign State to conclude by its declaration the
question whether any person was, or was not, its
protege, would enable it to transfer to its pro
tection masses of a foreign population residing in
their own country, and to create semi-independent
communities within the borders of a friendly
State. Indeed, this is precisely what has resulted
at Sur from the action of French officials in
Muscat, and constitutes a grave attack upon the
independence of the Sultan of Muscat.
And, even assuming a limited jurisdiction in
the French Consul to decide questions arising
between the captain and crew of an Omani vessel
flying the French flag, this jurisdiction does not
render either captain or crew French proteges so
as to withdraw them from the justice of their
Sovereign in matters not relating to the contract
of sea service. The same rule is applicable as in
the case of a foreign merchant ship in the waters
of any European State. The crew are justiciable
in such State for anything there done (with the
possible exception of the matters arising out of
their contract of sea service), and if one of the