"ملف ٢٠/٨: شؤون دولة مسقط: احتجاج العمانيين" [و‎‎٨] (٦٣٤/١٥)

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(1) Subordination to Sultan of Imam. This mi"ht be arranged on
the lines of the Pope and the Catholic sovereigns of the middle ages. And
this point could be settled in communication with Isa bin Salih whose previous
answer was obviously bluff.
(2) Surrender of Semail. This has already been dealt with. Must ho
surrendered to the Sultan. Isa is the objector.
I have I trust given enough to show that, given the show of British
intervention behind to make peace permanent, we have enough to go to a
meeting.
I now come to the question of the necessity for a trained corps and I
propose to deal with this in a separate letter. At the present moment it would
be difficult to spare odicers to train a levy corps, but one officer would be
sufficient.
I am, however, despatching this letter since the necessity for a decision
regarding the question of a meeting with the rebel leaders and, if necessary, a
blockade is rendered urgent by the ’fact that the date season will be in
full sway in two months before which time the meeting should take place.
If a meeting were agreed to I would suggest the despatch beforehand of a
letter to all the Chiefs of Oman on the lines of the attached draft which has
been written to appeal to the Oriental rather than to the European.
A copy of this letter has been sent direct to the Hon’ble the Foreign
Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Dapart-
ment.
Sub-Enclosure of Enclosure to Serial No. 5.
Text of proposed letter to Imam and leaders of revolution and all Chiefs of tribes.
I have read with interest the correspondence regarding the meeting of
the Political Agent, Lieutenant-Colonel Benn, with Sheikh Isa bin Salin iu
1915'and the letters which you addressed to that officer. In one of the letters
which was written by Abdullah bin Hashid bin Salih al Hasmi Kazi and
Sheikh Hamed bin Said al Faleti you make many complaints and I Mould
wish to discuss some of these with you.
You raise the question of the manumission of slaves and complain that
we have no right to do this, but by your own Shara a man who is born a
Muhammadan cannot beheld as a slave and every man can free a slave so
found.
As to slaves brought from other countries that is against our law and the
law of the countries from which such men were being brought and you surely
would not think we should follow your law out of your country in opposition
to the law of those countries.
AU civilised countries of the world, including the Muhammadan countries
of Turkey and Persia, have forbidden slavery. Would you enforce an unlaw
ful rule upon others. This is impossible.
With regard to the rifles and ammunition. This also is the system of all
civilised countries of the world that only the Nizam or those having a license
from the Government of the country snould possess rifles and do you want
Muhammadans to slay each other in defiance of the law. If not then you
should order that rifles be taken away from ail men so that disputes may be
finished by law and not by the recourse to arms, for this is against the Muham
madan law as well as all laws.
And the British Government is a friend of the Muhammadans and
especially the Arabs and is assisting the Arab Muhammadans in all parts of
the world, a fact which must be known to you. How then should we wish
evil to a Muhammadan nation.
Our friend Taimur is a good Muhammadan and is willing to govern accord-
in" to Shara in all things possible. You complain that we have interfered
with the appointing and deposing of your sovereigns but Taimur is onr friend
and why should we not assist him.
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