Coll 20/2 'Administration: Question of abdication of Sultan; Succession and Subsidies; Question of abrogation of treaties with USA and France' [‎369r] (737/757)

4
CONFIDENTIAL.
INDIA OFFICE The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ,
B. 400.
P. 4640/2S.
MUSCAT: 1908-1928.
I.—Administration.
1. His Highness Saiykl Taimnr bin Faisal bin Turki, K.C.I.E. (1926),
C.S.I. (1917), Sultan of Muscat and Oman, born in 1885, succeeded his
father, Sultan Saiyid Faisal-bin-Turki, G.C.l. E., who had ruled the Sultanate
since 1888, in 1913. He has three sons, of whom the eldest, Saiyid Said, is
being educated at an Arab school in Baghdad. His Highness, who is
entitled to a salute of 21 guns, represented his father at the Delhi Durbar 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). ,
1902-3, and visited England in the summer of 1928, when he was received
in audience by the King, and entertained as a State guest for a period of
a month.
2. The Sultan is an independent potentate who has commercial treaties
with the Governments of France (1841) and the United States (1833), as well
as with His Majesty’s Government. There is in addition a commercial
declaration of 1877 with the Dutch Government. Under the Anglo-French
declaration of 1862, His Majesty’s Government and the French Government
engage reciprocally to respect the independence of ihe Sultan of Muscat (as
of the Sultan of Zanzibar). Under his treaty relations with His Majesty’s
Government, a precis of which is contained in the memorandum printed as an
Appendix on page f|], the Sultan is pledged never to cede, sell, mortgage,
or otherwise give for occupation, his dominions, save to His Majesty’s
Government, to whom, in addition, the right to search and seize Muscat
ships suspected of carrying slaves was ceded in 1873, as was the right
(simultaneously ceded to Persia) to search Muscat vessels tor arms in Muscat
waters in 1898. The right to search Muscat vessels for arms on the high
seas was ceded to His Majesty’s Government and the Italian Government
in 1903. Ilis Highness has further undertaken not to grant oil concessions
without the approval of His Majesty’s Government. While, however, the
Sultan is in theory a wholly independent ruler, since the end of the eighteenth
century British influence has been predominant in Muscat, and in practice
the relations which obtain between its ruler and His Majesty’s Government
and the Government of India very closely approximate to those which obtain
between the Government of India and an Indian State under the suzerainty
of His Majesty.
3. The internal administration of Muscat is carried out by an Advisory
Council of Ministers (President, Minister of Finance, Minister of Religious
Affairs, Minister of Justice), 52 ' purely Arab with the exception noted below,
presided over by His Highness’s brother, Saiyid Nadir.t The Council,
which the Sultan was required to institute in 1920 as a condition of the
assistance of His Majesty’s Government in the reconstruction of his adminis
tration and in negotiations with the rebel Omani tribes (see para. 35), is
entitled to a salute of 17 guns, individual members receiving live and the
President nine, or 13 if a member of the ruling House. In theory it
exercises all ordinary powers of administration, not only during the absence,
but during the presence of the Sultan at Muscat, subject to the retention by
His Highness of power to decide all matters of extraordinary importance
affecting the interests of his State or his dynasty4 It does not, however,
appear in the past to have exercised in practice a very effective control. At
the request of the Sultan, an Englishman, Mr. B. S. Thomas, O.B.E.,
formerly assistant British representative in Trans-Jordan,§ was appointed in
1925 as Financial Adviser. In 1926 Mr. Thomas was appointed Wazir Minister. and
a member of the Muscat Council, functioning as Finance Minister, but
having also a full share in the government of the State. The result has
been a marked improvement in the general level of efficiency of administration.
4. His Majesty’s Government and the Government of India are
represented in Muscat by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , who is an officer of the Indian
Political Department, on the cadre of which the appointment is borne. The
3064 75 10.28 A
* P. 937/24.
t Letter 163 S. from
Pol. Res. to G. of I.,
April 24 1926,
P. 2077/26.
P.H. 321/22.
£ G. of I. Desp. to
S. of S. for l.,
Mar. 31 1921,
P.1969/21.
§ Letter 418 S. from
Pol. Res. to G. of I..
July 20 1924.