'File 6/1 Foreign Interests: American Mission at Muscat' [‎85r] (169/210)

4 .
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®as a case of r^to faire c'est agir. Saiyid Said said he would
liice time to consider the matter.
7* I vvas not approached by either party after this, and
naturally left well • or what I hoped was **well w - alone.
After a couple of weeks I heard that the matter had been
settled privately between the Council and the Missionaries
by the woman going into ’purdah* for the appointed time in
the house of Miss Hosmon - the lady Missionary doctor - and
by the woman’s personal property being returned to the
brother-in-law. I trust therefore that the case, which caused
me some anxiety at the time, and which might have had serious
consequences* is finally disposed of. If so it is undoubtedly
due to the sensible attitude adopted by Saiyid Said.
' —
8. But though the case is disposed of it will not - in
connection with the proposal to raise the customs tariff - make
the Council any more ready to grant the United States claim
for most favoured nation treatment. (Vide my letter No. 11-C
of 13th January 193t para 3.) In fact it is just this tendency
on the part of the American Missionaries here (as elsewhere) to
interfere (doubtless with humane motiwes) on behalf of their
converts, (or alleged converts), and to regard the latter as
having in some mysterious way gained peculiar extra-territorial
rights, that mainly makes for whatever anti-American feeling
and suspicion there ma.y exist in Muscat.
*^0 - Maj or,
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. & K.B.K’s Consul,
r? , Muscat.