‘Persia – especially Seistan’ [‎215v] (429/949)

4
during the last 100 years, and I take the liberty of recording them for facility
of reference:—
1H08. —Saiyid Saeed-bin-Sultan, Imam of Maskat, assisted by his uncle,
Kais, besieged and reduced the port which the Joasmees had converted into a
rendezvous and depot in connection with their piratical enterprises in the Gulf.
1808 to 1832 .—Khor Eakan ruled by the Joasmee Chief, Sultan-bm-
Sakar, in fief for the Imam of Maskat. Captain Brucks, R.N., in his *• Memoir
of the Navigation of the Gulf ”, issued in 18^7 writes—“ It belongs to the Imam
of Maskat, whose nominal revenue from it is about 3,000 German crowns
1832. —Sultan-bin-Sakar, taking advantage of the disturbed state of the
Imam, Saeed-bin-Sultan’s affairs, assimilated Khor Eakan and other adjacent
ports and held them for himself.
1^50 to 1851. —After 1832 the Imam and the Joasmee Chief seem to
have made up their differences, and the latter returned to his allegiance to
Saiyid Sard’s successor, Saiyid Thoweynee (uncle of Saiyid Eeysal), for it
appears that in 1850, when Kais-bin-Azzan attacked and captured Khor Fakan
from Sultan-bin-Sakar, the latter appealed to the Sultan of Maskat, Saiyid
Thoweynee-bin-Saeed, for assistance. The Sultan, however, informed his vassal
that he was too busily employed elsewhere to make any diversion in his
favour, and that he, Sultan-bin-Sakar, must manage the business himself. The
Joasmee thereupon determined to try his fortune alone, and was successful in
recovering Khor Eakan from Kais. Although Saiyid Thoweynee’s inability to
come to the Joasmee’s assistance in his hour of need became the cause of
temporary estrangement between them, they soon became reconciled, but Saiyid
Thoweynee did not apparently trouble himself after this with the affairs of the
northern Batineh ports, and from that period up to the present they have
remained under the domination of the Joasmee Sheikhs.
3. So much for past history. His Highness Saiyid Feysal informed me
that he believed that the community now pay no tribute "to the Joasmee
Sheikh, but it can hardly be that the present Sheikh of Shargah would view
with equanimity any attempt on the part of the ruler of Maskat to reassert
himself in that quarter, and in view of the decided opinion expressed by
Colonel Miles, as Resident, in Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. letter No. Ill, dated 6 th July 1886,
I should not think it necessary to trouble you with a reference, were it not that
the general position has been a good deal changed since that correspondence
took place by the increased interest taken by foreign Powers in the politics of
the Gulf.
4. Under existing conditions, it is theoretically in the interests of British
policy that the ruler of Maskat should extend or reassert his effective influence
and jurisdiction, as far as he reasonably can, in order that as much of the coast
line of Oman as possible may be brought within the limits of the territory
which we can claim, as against France, to be covered by the Declaration of
1862, by which our respective Governments mutually agreed to respect the
Sultan’s independence. Otherwise there would seem to be nothing to prevent
France or any other foreign Power from acting on the presumption that the
ports on the strip of coast-line before specified were either communities
independent individually or else that they were collectively subject to an
independent Joasmee Sheikh. In this connection I have the honour to
attach in original, for information, one of a series of letters which appeared
some weeks ago in the “ Dcpeche Coloniale ”, and which are believed to have
emanated from Maskat, from a perusal of which it will appear that the
locality in question has not escaped the specific attention of our neighbours.
I may mention also that the yacht “ Selika ” touched both at Khor Eakan
and Dibba in the course of her recent sojourn in these waters.
In conclusion, it seems to be a point worthy of consideration whether we
could exercise more influence over the locality in question as part of the
Maskat Sultanate or as an appanage of the Joasmee Chief. Trusting to be
favoured with your views and instructions at an early date, &c.