مذكرة عن احترام المصالح البريطانية في الخليج العربي. [ظ‎‎٢‎٢] (١٢٦/١٠)

10
In the ports and territory of Muscat itself this
predominance has been accentuated by the facts
that the trade of the British dominions with
Muscat amounts to about five-sixths of the entire
trade of the country ; that the latter is almost
exclusively in the hands of Indian traders, who
are British subjects; that the commerce and
interests of any other country are relatively
insignificant; that the share of the trade enjoyed
by the three other Powers with whom Muscat
*
has direct Treaty relations, viz , America, Prance,
and Holland,* amounts, if added together, to less
than one-seventeenth of the entire trade of the
country.
The relations of amity which have been above
recorded culminated in 1891 in an Agreement
voluntarily entered into by Seyyid Feysal-bin-
Turki, G.C.I.E., the present Sultan, following
immediately upon the conclusion of a new
Commercial Treaty between Great Britain and
Muscat, by which he undertook never to cede,
to sell, to mortgage, or otherwise give for occu
pation, save to the British Government, the
dominions of Muscat and Oman or anv of their
dependencies.
In 1894 a French Vice-Consul was appointed
at Muscat, and this official made it his first aim
to alienate the sympathy of the Sultan from
Great Britain. The action of France was believed
to be inspired to a large extent by Bussia, who
was credited with designs of an aggressive naval
policy in the Gulf. It would be tedious to retail
the circumstances under which this action was
exerted. Suffice it to say that matters reached a
crisis in 1899, when it transpired that an Agree
ment had been concluded with the French
Government, in March of the preceding year, for
the lease of a coaling station at Bunder Gisseh,a
place 5 miles south-east of Muscat.
This action was held to constitute a violation
of the Agreement of 1891 with Great Britain.
Owing to this and the breach of other Treaty
stipulations, and of personal assurances formally
entered into by the Sultan, a Memorandum was
presented to him on the 3rd February, 1899,
by the Government of India, which, after rc-
* The dates of the respective Treaties are: United States
of America, 1833; France, 1844; Netherlands, 1877.
An Arrangement respecting trade jurisdiction, wrecks, &c.,
was concluded by the Portuguese Governor-General of
Mozambique in February 182C.