'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎160v] (325/386)

Telegram, dated the 11th February 1899.
From—Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, London,
To—His Excellency the Viceroy, Calcutta.
Your telegram of ICth February. Foreign-Secret. Maskat. My telegram
of 9th February authorised Meade to compel compliance with all demands
known by us to have been addressed to Sultan including dismissal of Abdul
Aziz. Cancelling of lease seems to both Prime Minister and myself to have
somewhat outrun limits of instructions, as I have explained by letter, but we
agree to its enforcement. Condition attached to enforcement of demands was
no personal collision with French. Failure of payment of indemnity to British
subjects, though part of our case against the Sultan, stands on a different footing ;
its enforcement might raise local feeling against us. Meade should, therefore,
exercise his discretion as to how far it is now politic to enforce its complete
fulfilment. Your telegram is understood to say Meade is authorised to require
dismissal of Abdul Aziz, but not his deportation. I approve of this course.
30
No. 38 (Secret—External), dated Fort William, the 2nd March 1899.
From—The Government of India in the Foreign Department,
To —The Right Hon'ble Lord George F, Hamilton, Her Majesty’s Secretary of
State for India.
P.ecent events in Maskat render it in our opinion desirable to present to
YoSir Lordship a comprehensive review of the history of our connection with
that State.
2. It is of long standing. Treaties of friendship and commerce, as well
as for the suppression of slavery, have been concluded with successive Imams
of Maskat on different occasions since 1798. In that year the first engagement
was entered into between the East India Company and Saiyid Sultan, for the
exclusion from his territories of French influence, which contemplated finding
in Maskat a convenient basis of attack upon India in the war then being
waged between Great Britain and France. At a later date, on the death of
Saiyid Said in 1856, a dispute arose between his two sons as to the possession
of Maskat and Zanzibar which had hitherto been united under the same ruler.
This was referred to the arbitration of the Viceroy of India, then Lord Canning,
who, after careful enquiry, decided that the two States should remain separate,
being divided between the two brothers; but that Zanzibar, in virtue of its
superior wealth, should pay to Maskat a yearly subsidy of 40,000 crowns. At
a subsequent period, in 1873, the British Government, in return for agreements
concerning the suppression of the slave trade, successfully concluded with the
rulers both of Maskat and Zanzibar, undertook to relieve the latter of this
payment, which has since that date, i. e, for a period of a quarter of a century,
been made by the Government of India without intermission to the reigning
Sultan of Maskat. The conditions of the subsidy were clearly laid down at
the time to Sultan Saiyid Turki, the then recipient, to whom the subsidy was
guaranteed “so long as he continued faithful to fulfil his treaty engagements
and manifest his friendship towards the British Government.” Subject to
these conditions, the payment has ever since been regularly made from the
revenues of the Government of India to him and to his successor. It appears
indeed that, since the time of Saiyid Said, no Sultan of Maskat has been able
effectively to establish bis position without obtaining the recognition of the
British Government; while there is nothing to show that any other foreign
Government has ever been applied to for a similar recognition. Throughout
this period the Government of India have on several occasions been called upon
to intervene in the dynastic disputes of the Maskat State. Claimants or pretenders
have been interned in India, have been prevented from attacking a reigning
Sultan, have been given allowances, and have been otherwise dealt with as