File 600/1905 Pt 1 'Aden Hinterland: Treaty with Dthala' [‎425v] (112/174)

5. The treaties contain the ^ 0 ^°wing stipulations :«
I. —Peace and friendship and freedom of intercourse; that is to say, the
subjects of each shall be free to come and go in the territories
of the other, and shall mutually be accorded protection and
respect.
II. —Then come the protectorate clauses—■
(a) The gracious favour and protection of His Majesty the King-Em-
peror is accorded to the territory of the Chief and its depen
dencies.
(b) The Chief binds himself and his successors and his tribe to refrain
from entering into any correspondence or treaty with any other
nation or power; and also promises to give immediate notice of
any attempt at interference.
(c) The Chief binds himself and his successors not to cede, or otherwise
dispose of, any part of his territories to any power other than
the British Government.
III. —The Chief promises on behalf of himself and his successors and
his tribe to keep open the roads in his territory, and to protect
persons using them for the purposes of trade, whether going to
wards Aden or coming therefrom.
6. In my humble opinion treaties with the Chiefs in the Aden Protectorate
should be as simple as possible, and the stipulations should be confined to the
most necessary points. Arabs are very suspicious, and the Chiefs know the
provisions of all the treaties we have made well enough. New forms of treaty,
or new clauses, are sure to give rise to misgivings. When we began to make
the treaties, which have recently been concluded, w r e had to argue over and
explain every clause ; and the negociations took a long time. The later treaties,
however, have been accepted almost at once. I therefore respectfully submit
that the less the treaty w ith the Amir varies from the treaties with his neigh
bours, the Yaffai as Suffal, the better. The draft herewith submitted for approv
al has accordingly been framed on the same lines as these treaties.
7. Of the four conditions proposed for embodiment by the Government of
Bombay, numbers (1) and (3), and of those added by the Government of
India, the first stipulation, («), appears to me to be sufficiently provided for in
the present form of treaty. But in order to satisfy (2) and to more completely
carry out (3), I have added two clauses, VI and VII. I should, however,
prefer to see both these clauses omitted.
8. With regard to (2), the maintenance of the boundary pillars, I would
observe that as these are necessarily on the actual boundary line, they belong
just as much to the people on the Turkish side as to those on ours ; and they
can be destroyed by ill-disposed persons, who are Turkish subjects, without
the Amir having a chance of interfering for their preservation. To lay on the
Amir, by an article in a formal treaty, the obligation of maintaining the
boundary pillars, appears to me rather hard, and I think we should have great
difficulty in getting him to accept this condition. My own idea was to pay
the local Sheikhs, on whose borders the pillars stand, a small sum for each
pillar, as long as it remained standing. It was hoped that each Sheikh would
then endeavour to arrange w r ith his neighbour on the other side for the pro
tection of the pillars, giving him probably some part of his small allowance
for co-operation. It seemed possible that in this way a joint interest in the
preservation of the pillars might be created. At any rate, if the pillars were
not protected, there would be no pay for the border Sheikhs, I intended to
leave the management of this matter in the hands of the Political Officer at
Dthala, the small allowances being provided from the allotment for Darbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family).
presents. There would really be little or no extra expense, as the Shei chs
would get certain presents from time to time in the ordinary course, and they
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