IOR/R/15/6/252

This volume concerns the Commercial Treaty of 1891 between Britain and Muscat (spellings vary throughout), which was signed on 19 March 1891 and ratified on 20 February 1892. The volume features the following principal correspondents: the Political Agent and Consul, Muscat; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Secretary of State for India; the Permanent Under-Secretary for India; the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office, and the Government of India.

Related matters of discussion include the following: proposed amendments to the initial treaty, which was executed by Colonel Edward Charles Ross, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, without the British Government's full authority, on 18 April 1890; proposals from the Secretary of State for India (Richard Assheton Cross, Viscount Cross) for the treaty, once amended, to be limited to a term of twelve years, after which it should be terminable at twelve months' notice; the conclusion of the amended treaty and the signing of a supplementary declaration, in which the Sultan of Muscat [Sayyid Fayṣal bin Turkī Āl Bū Sa‘īd] pledges not to sell any portion of his territory to any party except the British Government; revisions and amendments to the original 1891 treaty, proposed in 1903 and 1911.

In addition to correspondence, the volume includes the following treaty-related items: the Arabic text of the 1890 version of the treaty (ff 4-11); copies of the aforementioned declaration, written in English and Arabic, and dated 20 March 1891 (f 33); an English translation of a draft treaty, prepared by the Sultan in May 1911 (ff 60-88).

Also discussed towards the end of the volume is the Muscat Order-in-Council (1915), a copy of which is included (ff 92-100).

There is no material covering the periods 1892-1900, 1904-1910 and 1912-1914.