Coll 20/2 'Administration: Question of abdication of Sultan; Succession and Subsidies; Question of abrogation of treaties with USA and France' [‎371v] (742/757)

6
* Pol. Agent to Pol.
Res., May 29 1921,
P.4180/21.
t P. 870/18.
Government and the Government of India had been that, as in tne case of
Sultan Feisal, it should be personal to the ruler.' :i: ' The complete success of
the restrictions imposed on the arms traffic, the extension to Arabia of the
Arms Traffic Convention of 1919, and the financial stringency of the post
war period, led at a later stage to re-examination of the position in regard to^^
this subsidy, and as a result the Sultan was warned in 1922 that, while it
would be continued to him during his tenure of power, it would not be
admissible to his successor. In this decision Jlis Highness reluctantly
acquiesced.
2o. The dominating position in Muscat throughout the war was the
rebellion of the Omani tribes, which Sultan Taimur inherited as a legacy
from his predecessor, which he found himself unable to quell on his accession,
and the history of which is separately dealt with in paras. 43 to 52 of this
Memorandum. The pre-occupation of the State with this problem absorbed
its energies during the War period, while its relative remoteness from the
politics of Central Arabia resulted in its isolation from the disputes of Ibn
Sand and Ibn Rashid, and from the development of events alike at the head
of the Gulf and on the coast of the Red Sea.
24, It is unnecessary to enter in any detail into the internal affairs of
Muscat (as distinct from the Omani rebellion) in the early years of the war.
The control of the arms traffic, itself no inconsiderable element in that
rebellion, was on the whole satisfactority maintained. Hut the Sultan
retained his throne thanks only to the active military assistance and support
of His Majesty’s Government, a support not extended to the administration
of his State until 1918; his administration, never distinguished, became
hopelessly corrupt; while His Highness’s financial position, as the result of
the inefficiency of his servants, the demands of the campaign against the
Omanis, and the loss of revenue involved in the Omani rebellion, gradually
deteriorated until in 1918 it could be described as desperate.f
25. The Government of India and His Majesty’s Government, committed
by their undertakings of 1895 and 1913 to secure the safety of the coast
towns of Muscat and Muttrah (cp. para. 45), in the early part of the war
confined their action to implementing these undertakings with some
generosity of interpretation, and abstained from interference in the internal
policy of the State. But the inefficiency of the internal administration, the
action taken at the behests of His Majesty’s Government by the Sultan and
his predecessor, and the Omani rebellion were closely interwoven; the
strategic position of Muscat, athwart the main route to the headwaters of
the Gulf and to Mesopotamia, was of vital interest; the nominal independence
of the Sultan rendered his situation of more than local importance, and in
1917 the then 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. , Major Haworth, submitted for consideration
a programme the acceptance of which would involve active interference in
the internal affairs of Muscat by the Government of India and His Majesty’s
Government.
20. The proposals of 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. were that a levy corps should
be established under British officers ; that a loan should be granted the
Sultan sufficient to rid him of his liabilities; and that as a condition of the
loan His Highness should agree to the transfer to British control of
the Muscat customs, to the appointment of a British adviser and to the
establishment of an educational system the ultimate result of which would be
the provision of a nucleus of Muscat subjects educationally qualified for
employment in the local administration, which had hitherto been whollv
dependent on alien talent.
27. Major Haworth's proposals necessitated careful consideration in the
light of the Declaration of .1862, under which His Majesty’s Government had
become a joint guarantor with France of the independence of Muscat. A
further difficulty was the uncertainty as to the authority with which respon
sibility for Muscat affairs would rest after the war, and the reluctance of
the Government of India to initiate a policy the development of which was
unlikely to rest with them. But circumstances forced the pace : negotiations
with the Omani rebels in the spring of 1918 were unproductive, the financial