"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٣‎٤‎٠] (١٧٨٢/٤٨٣)

340
upon Britain in the French newspapers, his favourite organ being the
" Ddpeche Coloniale," in which one article was even printed over his
signature ; virulent communications clearly traceable to the same source
appeared also in Russian journals and in the Arabic press of Egypt. M.
Goguyer's tirades showed bitter animus and an unscrupulous disregard of
truth, but their style was pungent and some of them were undeniably
witty ; they were chiefly directed against British policy as personified in
the British Political Agent at Masqat; but the Sultan of ; Oman also
came in for a share of ridicule and abase. Two British coal-prospecting
expeditions made from Sur in 1901 and a speech delivered by Lord Curzon
in Darbar at Sharjah in 1903 were savagely reviewed in French prints,
and an Arabic article on British policy in Central Arabia which appeared
in the " Ahram" of Cairo in September 19041 showed that M. Goguyer
had not neglected to acquire information during a then recent visit to
Kuwait; an earlier article in the same Egyptian newspaper in 1902 had
dwelt on the insolence of the English and " their slaves the Hindus" at
Masqat. The object of the writer was obviously to create strong feeling
in France and elsewhere, partly, it may be, as a means of forcing the hand
of the French Foreign Office. In the circumstances it was not wonderful
that in 1903, after M. Goguyer had been at work for three years, a report
that Britain was about to annex Masqat caused disquietude in France and
provoked an interpellation in the French Chamber.
The Sultan of 'Oman was not allowed to remain in ignorance of
M. Goguyer's attacks ; on the contrary he was regularly supplied with
translations or copies of the same by unknown correspondents in Europe,
In the beginning of 1901 the Sultan consulted the British representative
at Masqat as to the possibility of action being taken against M. Goguyer,
and the matter was referred to His Majesty's Government, who decided
to ascertain in the first instance whether M. Goguyer possessed any official
status at Masqat. The reply of the French Ambassador was somewhat
ambiguous, for he merely stated that M. Goguyer " was believed to be the
representative of a shipping agency, and that there was no reason for
thinking that he had any official position, although he might have been
employed by the French Vice-Consulate as a clerk" In 1902 M. Laronce,
who in the previous year had succeeded M. Ottavi as French Vice-Consul
at Masqat,—an estimable gentleman but one who stood in awe of
M. Goguyer's scurrilous pen—was persuaded by the British Political Agent
to ask his Government whether he might agree to M. Goguyer's deportation
from Masqat by the Sultan. The reply of the French Foreign Office was
unfavourable, but a warning to M. Goguyer that he should exercise mor
circumspection in his writings was authorised,, Soon after he had icpell