IOR/R/15/6

In 1843, the Ruler decided to move his Court to Zanzibar - an island included in the Sultan of Muscat's territories. The Company Directors therefore transferred the Residency to Zanzibar and placed a Native Agent at Muscat. The Native Agent corresponded with Bombay, with the Political Resident at Bushire and with his immediate superior, the Political Agent at Zanzibar. This arrangement continued until 1859 when the division of the Sultanate necessitated higher level representation at Muscat. Following various temporary arrangements the Government of Bombay again appointed a European Agent Muscat in 1861. He was directly subordinate to the Political Department of the Government of Bombay, though he was to keep the Political Resident at Bushire informed of his activities. Subsequently, his rank and salary were raised to be equal to that of the Agent and Consul at Zanzibar, and he was also given Consular rank. In 1865, the Agent at Muscat was ordered to correspond with Bombay via the Political Resident at Bushire and in 1868, in common with other Agents in the Gulf, he was ordered to send copies of his correspondence direct to the India Office in London. In his capacity as Consul the Agent also corresponded direct with the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, from 1843, the British Agent and Consul at Zanzibar reported on affairs in Zanzibar and Muscat to the Government of Bombay and on trade matters to the Foreign Office, and from around 1859 also sent copies of his despatches to Bombay direct to the India Office. There were periodic changes in the arrangements for the receipt by the Foreign Office and India Office of correspondence and its distribution between them. In 1883 the Zanzibar post was transferred to the control of the Foreign Office, although the Consul still corresponded direct with the Indian Government on non-political questions affecting British Indian subjects. After 1883, therefore, most of the material relating to the Zanzibar post will be found in the Foreign Office records at the National Archives. In 1891 the territory became a British protected state under a British Minister, and in 1914 control was transferred from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office and the government vested in a British Resident.

By the early 1870s, it was obvious that the complex division of responsibility between five authorities made for confusion in the conduct of diplomacy in the Middle East. The five Agencies and Residencies were: the Agent and Consul at Zanzibar, partly under India Office and partly under Foreign Office control; similarly the Muscat Agent; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf under the India Office; the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia partly under the India Office and partly under the Foreign Office; and the Minister at Tehran under the Foreign Office. The Secretary to the India Office Political Department, J.W.Kaye, recommended that all policy should be conducted by the India Office. No radical solution could be agreed upon, but it was decided in January 1873 to transfer responsibility for the Persian Gulf territories from the Government of Bombay to the direct control of the Government of India, with whose Foreign Department the Agents in the area were henceforward to communicate. The Agent at Muscat was to remain subordinate to the Political Resident at Bushire. Copy correspondence was to be sent to the Government of Bombay and the Agent at Muscat was to remain subordinate to the Resident at Bushire. In London Muscat remained the responsibility of the India Office.

The Sultan of Muscat’s territories included the town of Gwadar on the southern coast of Persian Baluchistan: the Makran Coast. The construction of the Indo-European Telegraph line via Persia brought Gwadar into prominence and in 1863 a British Agency was established under an Assistant Political Agent subordinate both to the Political Agent at Muscat and the Political Agent at Kalat. Arrangements for supervising the post were changed from time to time and in 1879 a Native Agency was substituted for it. After the First World War, an official of the Persian Gulf Residency was appointed as British Agent at Gwadar and in 1930 the Political Agent at Muscat took over responsibility for the post.

In 1891 British relations with Muscat were strengthened by the secret Bond by which the Sultan pledged himself never to 'cede, to sell, to mortgage or otherwise give for occupation, save to the British Government, the dominions of Muscat and Oman or any of their dependencies'. The defeat of the French after the ruling of the Hague Tribunal in the Muscat Dhows Arbitration in 1905, and the 1912 Proclamation prohibiting arms traffic, confirmed the dominant influence of Britain in the Sultanate in the years before the First World War. From the 1920s the scope of the Agent's work shifted towards supervising the economic and social development of the Sultanate as a result of the assumption of the customs administration by officials recommended by the Government of India in 1919 and by the appointment of a British Financial Adviser to the Sultan in 1925. The Agency at Muscat was largely unaffected by the political upheavals in the Middle East, and the Agent continued to be responsible to the Government of India and the India Office via the Political Resident until 1948 when control was transferred to the Foreign Office.