"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٥‎٧‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٧١٧)

574
Telegraph
service in
augurated at
Masqat,
1901.
Protection of
British eub-
jects In'Oman
from 1899 to
the pregei.t
time.
Case at Qur.
yat, 1899.
" Baron In-
verdale" case,
1904.
made obligatory on British subjects and British protected persons by a
notification issued by the British Consul at Masqat on the 6th of
July 1903. The Appendix on Epidemics and Sanitary Organisation
deals fully with these and allied matters.
In the Appendix on the Telegraphs of the Persian Gulf will be
found an explanation of the circumstances in which ; in November
1901, 'Oman was brought into telegraphic communication with the
outside world by means of a cable laid from Jashk to Masqat.
After 1899, in consequence of the generally quiet state of the country,
the protection of British subjects in 'Oman and the punishment of
offences against them demanded, but for one case of exceptional gravity,
comparatively little attention. Tribal raids of the ordinary type, however^
continued.
The Sultan, being unable to recover compensation from the tribesmen,
made good out of his own pocket the losses, amounting to nearly §1,200,
of foui Biitish traders of Quryat, whose goods were carried off in
the plunder of the Quryat bazaar in June 1899 by a gang from
Sharqiyah under Hamad, a son of the late Shaikh Salih-bin-'Ali.
< T1:ie most sei, ious case of the period arose from the loss of a British
ship upon the southern coast of Arabia, where the people are wild and
uncivilised, and where the treatment of shipwrecked crews has always been
a matter of grave uncertainty. On the 2nd of August 1903 a French
merchant ship, the "Amiral Gueydon/'having caught fire by an explo
sion, was beached at Ras Hasik. The crew and passengers, 56 persons
m all, were protected by the Sultan's representative in Dhufar and by the
Shaikh of Muibat until the end of the monsoon, and were then despatched
in native boats to Masqat; but upon the way there, in the neighbour-
ood of lias Madrakah, they were picked up at sea by the Russian
steamer « TrouvorExactly a year later, on the 2nd of August 1904,
Baion Im crdale of Ardrossan, a steamer with a registered tonnage
• -I ^ ^ ^ so uls mostly British—on board, struck Jibliyah, an
an o t c K uiia, Mm ia group, with more tragic consequences. Eight
e ailois prefened to remain on the wreck and were taken off it a
fortnight later by the British steamer «Prome," but the rest of the
company left the ship on the 6th of August in two lifeboats, intending
to make for the mainland. The smaller of the boats, which must have
fv. at S1X ^ ersonSj was neve r heard of again; the other, after passing
up e i asirah channel, seems to have been driven about the middle ofs
g upon the north end of Masirah Island, where the 17 occupant
were cruelly massacred by Arabs for the sake of their property. On