File 868/1912 Pt 1 'Arms traffic: arrangements at Muscat for its regulation' [‎52r] (110/458)

X
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Govarnraant ]
[A]
arms traffic.
'"N
CONFIDENTIAL.
[August 24.]
Sbotion 1 .
[ 35672 ] No. i.
Sir F. Bertie to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received August 24.)
(No. 36. Africa.)
Paris, August 23, 1912.
M. POINCARE returned from Russia on the evening of the 21st instant, and
I had an interview with his Excellency this morning with the object of carrying out
the instructions which you did me the honour to address to me in your despatch
No. 43, Africa, of the 19th instant on the subject of the arms traffic in the Persian
Gulf.
I told M. Poincare that I had by your direction to speak to him on a matter which
was becoming very serious, and before discussing it I should be obliged if he would
read the memorandum which I had brought with me and would leave ■with him.
After his Excellency had read the memorandum he said that he was not well
acquainted with the question dealt with in it, but he ’would study it. There was a
treaty right at issue, and the French Government were bound to defend the rights of
French commercial firms.
I reminded M. Poincare that we had not hesitated, in order to be agreeable to the
French Government, to give them the right of search of British vessels in Moroccan
waters, and it was natural for us to expect to have our interests in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
treated in an equally considerate manner. His Excellency thought that the right of
search had been only temporary, for he stated that the French military authorities
complained that great injury was done to French interests by the importation
of arms for the use of the natives from Antwerp, arms of precision chiefly of German
manufacture, and the trade was carried on a good deal by Spaniards. On this, I
observed that in 1907 the Spanish Government had refused the right of search, and
M. Clemenceau had made this refusal the subject of complaint to me in September of
that year, and on my reporting the matter to you Spanish opposition was, at the
instance of His Majesty J s Government, witndrawn. The 1 rench Government still
had the right of search so far as British vessels were concerned.
We then returned to the question of the traffic in the 1 ersian Gulf, and I said
that 1 thought that if France w^ere in the difficulty in which England found herself
there His Majesty’s Government would not hesitate to facilitate matters for her.
M. Poincard rather demurred to this view, for he observed that he admitted that in
questions where treaty rights w r ere not concerned England was very easy-going and
considerate, but when such rights were involved she was, he thought, immovable, and,
in the matter of trade with Muscat, France had well-defined treaty rights, lo this I
replied that what we opposed was not a French trade with Muscat, but the making
of that Sultanate the dep6t for the distribution of arms brought m by Frencn traders
for introduction into other States where their importation was prohibited. I said that
I knew that French firms with important political influence were interested m the
sale of arms discarded from use in the French army, but it was a trade which was not
only injurious to the friends of France, but would ultimately be hurtful to French
interests, as would certainly he the case before long in Africa owing to the facility
with which arms found their way through the custom-house at Jibuti. M. Poincare
admitted that French firms of importance with political influence were interested m
such sales, and that arms reached far into the interior of Africa to the detriment of
French interests, and when I suggested that discarded army rifles should he bioken
up instead of being sold, he objected that the French Ministry of Pmance w^ould be
verv unwilling to consent to such a mode of dealing with obsolete arms, for their sale
brought in a considerable revenue. I answered that the injury reciprocally done y
European States to each other through sales to uncivilised people far outweigned m
its result the pecuniary benefit derived from their disposal m such manner, ^nia ly,
M. Poincare promised to go into the question thoroughly, and when I expressed the
[2592 aa-w-l]