'Persian Gulf; Muscat and Zanzibar' [‎39v] (4/8)

4
one similarly accredited by the Persian Court, to
act under a British arbitrator. I believe that, sup
posing Colonel Merewether, or Lieutenant-Colonel
Goldsmid, or Major Pelly, were entrusted with the
undertaking, this feud of ages could in three months
be satisfactorily settled. In the meantime, we ought
not to hesitate to assure the Persian Government
that, when a favourable condition of affairs may
exist at Cabool, we shall be glad to direct our
Government in India to consider at what time and
place it will be best to enter upon this friendly
office.
Muscat and Zanzibar,
The Imaums of Muscat have been faithful to us.
The late Imaum, Syud Toorkee, like his father
before him, evinced uniformly the best disposition
towards the British Government. Requisitions on
their friendship, owing to the constant presence of
our Indian Navy vessels, the vigilance of those
cruisers in hunting slavers, and the frequent opera
tions of our surveyors on the coast and in parts of
the interior, have been continual. Of late years
also the goodwill of Thoweynee had been much
called on, and proved active, in aiding our opera
tions in laying and working our electric line of
communication with India.
In honour and in policy we must not allow Persia
to attempt aggressions, or to revive ancient preten
sions, against the independence of Muscat.
When I undertook, in 1861, to adjust Syud
Thoweynee’s quarrels with his brother, SyudToorkee,
at Sohar, and with his nephew, Syud Majeed, at
Zanzibar, I had recourse, in the latter case, as the
only possible basis, to requiring an acknowledgment
of the independence of Zanzibar, in consideration
of the payment by Zanzibar of an annual subsidy.
At the same time, I felt that the Imaum’s com
pliance must prove a painful wrench to his dignity.
In fact, it lost him Zanzibar for ever. Nor do I
think that anything short of the Arabic eloquence
of the Rev. Mr. Badger (a padre whom they all
like) could have persuaded him. So advised, he
yielded, and, finally, with so much good temper as
to convey to me his thanks for all the pains taken
with the matter, and his acknowledgment that we
“ had given him something more than the bone to
“ gnaw.”
His late murder by his son has made the longer
payment of this subsidy (#40,000) odious to his
brother at Zanzibar, and scarcely less so to us to
enforce it. The only immediate solution by us of
this difficulty, as the case stands, appears to be that
now in the course of adoption, by which we are to
receive the amount from Zanzibar, and to pay it to
Muscat. However, I am strongly of opinion that
the suggestion submitted by me in 1862 would be
more satisfactory. It would cancel the hateful
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