IOR/R/15/1/404

This volume contains correspondence predominantly between Major W G Grey, Officiating Political Agent; Percy Zachariah Cox, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf at Bushire; the Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department; and A Barnett Barker, Lieutenant-Commander, HMS Lapwing; and Fayṣal bin Turkī Āl Bū Sa‘īd, the Sultan of Muscat. The volume primarily concerns a dispute between Great Britain and France with regards to the flying of the French flag by Muscat dhow boats, resulting in arbitration by the Hague Tribunal. Subjects discussed within the volume include:

• The case of a British ship (HMS Terpsichore) boarding a vessel flying the French flag (folios 320-324)
• The French Consul's visit (folio 76)
• A landing at Gwadar in 1896 by the Perso-Baluch Boundary Commission without reference to the Sultan of Muscat (folios 111, 119)
• The objection to the inclusion of the Sultan in the Hague Arbitration (folio 7) and selection of members for the Hague Arbitration (folio 14)
• The captain Ali bin Salim Walad Taib [‘Alī bin Sālim Walad Tayyib?] (folio 289)
• Boundaries of Muscat as given for the Hague Arbitration (folios 168, 231, 266)
• Instructions that the Political Agent should not interfere with French consul's visit (folio 76)
• The case of ‘Abd al-Ḥasan bin ‘Abdullāh, known as Habluk (folio 67-68)
• The treatment of the Khoja's (f. 42); Nasib bin Muhammad [Naṣīb bin Muḥammad] (folio 67)
• The naval contractor and French protection (folio 60)
• Russian interests (folio 17)
• Question of the flag on Telegraph Island off Musandam (folios 201, 27)
• Boundaries with Ras-el-Khaimah (Ras al-Khaymah) and Shargah (Sharjah) (folio 200); slave trade under French flag (folio 320).

Documents of particular interest include:

• Agreements between the United Kingdom and France referring to Arbitration: the Question of the Grant of the French Flag to Muscat Dhow, February 1905 (folios 1C-4)
• Memorandum regarding the history of the Khoja Community now in Oman (folios 39-45); letters of Faysal bin Turki Al Bu Said (folios 47, 53-54)
• Documents concerning the interpretation of a 15 June 1900 (16 Ṣafar 1318) notification (‘ilān) in Arabic by Faysal bin Turki regarding flying flags of foreign governments (folios 134-144, 179-186)
• 'List of dhow owners supposed by French to be under their protection' (folios 177-178)
• And Nine separate notes in reply to various statements made in the French case for the Hague Tribunal (folios 204-233)
• 'Foreign Department Notes. Limits of the Sultanate of Muscat', by John Gordon Lorimer, dated 22 March 1905 (folios 267-268).