File 4377/1912 'Muscat Arms Traffic: Complaints of British Firms' [‎48v] (101/430)

2
regard
to
, i t -d -u:™ hesicles the amount of £479-2-6 for the
_ Mr - Abdul babun ’ 10 f()I . t ] ie shipment, as
Turkistan shipment owes *b customer we hold a deposit
per our invoice of the 9th August * from0 ur last invoice, and as the
of £700, which deposit also was to ^ J°J S on order, he is entitled to
Mashmia shipment was f °f *k e ’ a h but not from the £179-2-6.
deduct this sum from th ? fshipment, except
that they want i to deduct + th « were confiscated by His
shipment, they both refuse to p y, ^ un able to obtain possession of
Itoyal Highness the S " lt ™vt nd S t Tr a Xorities would not recognise
them, and these customers to the care of
them as consignees of W-shipment, because Urn goo^^ ^ ^ ^
Louis Dieu C ’ -j x i| ie gheikh of Koweit, who had a special
could long ago have sold the goods but tbat in sp ite of being
able to dv^safefJtory ’guarantees as to the ultimate destination of these goods
able to give sausiactoi y 0 , +1 Wp are a + a loss to understand this
the autnorities , tt* h et , s t p e gultan or whoever it may he; we
maintain Ae' goods belong to any party who holds the Bills of Lading, which
Messrs. Khan and Jaffar can at once obtain by paying our drafts.
With regard to the goods having been consigned to the care of Messrs.
Louis CT& Co. of Maskat, we beg to say that in May 1912 we made
Messrs L Dieu & Co. of Paris and Maskat, our agents not only for the purpose
of obtaining orders, but also that we might have some responsible party at
Maskat to look after our interests, for we had a L S mScuS
difficulty in obtaining prompt payment of our drafts, and moie particuia y,
we had found out that these customers invariably obtained posession of our
(roods without the production of the Bills of Lading. It was for these weighty
reasons therefore, that we sent the Bills of Lading, which were made out to
order ” to Messrk Louis Dieu & Co , which firm consequently, we had to give
as receivers, to the custom house here, otherwise we ran the risk of Messrs.
Khan and Jaffar again obtaining our goods before they paid tor them.
Messrs. Louis Dieu & Co. have instructions to hand over the Bills ot
Lading, or claim the goods on behalf of the customers as soon as they are
satisfied that our respective drafts are paid.
We mav further say that we informed both Messrs Khan and Jaffar abou
the arrangement, as above explained, we had made with Messrs. Louis Dieu &
Co., and we have several letters in our possession, where they express entire
approval of our action.
Although we have thus fully written you on this matter by way of refut-
ino* our customers’ reasons for not paying, we beg most emphatically to say
that the fact of the goods having been confiscated, and new regulations made
at Maskat by His Itoyal Highness the Sultan, which we consider contrary to
the permits we hold from him, and contrary to the treaty, we have absolutely
nothing whatever to do with these matters, as far as our engagements to our
customers are concerned, because the terms upon which we accepted their
orders, were for delivery c. i. f. Maskat, that is free Maskat Harbour,
! freight and insurance paid by us. Therefore, after we had delivered the goods
in Maskat harbour, our part of the contract has been fulfilled, and any re
gulations at Maskat, whether they were old or new regulations, have absolutely
nothing to do with us.
Under these circumstances, we again ask your kind assistance and protec
tion to us as British subjects, and to compel these customers to pay the amounts
due to us, viz: —
Haji All Khan Moosa Khan
Abdul Kahim Jaffar
You will
time, and
in accordance with, and particulars of the enclosed statements,
notice that we have charged interest on our drafts for the overdue —
also allowed interest on the deposit, which is in accordance with the arrange-,
ment we have with these customers.