IOR/R/15/6/254

This volume relates to the prolongation of the Commercial Treaty (1891) between Britain and Muscat. The original treaty was given a term of twelve years and was renewed at regular intervals afterwards, initially for several years at a time, and later on an annual basis.

The correspondence in this volume mainly concerns the replacement of the 1891 treaty with a new treaty. It includes extensive notes from British officials, examining each article of the proposed new treaty in turn. Proposed amendments to drafts of the new treaty are discussed at length. The principal correspondents are the following: the Political Agent and Consul, Muscat (Major R P Watts); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Trenchard Craven William Fowle); the Secretary of State for India; the Sultan of Muscat and Oman [Sa‘īd bin Taymūr Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; officials of the India Office, the Foreign Office, and the Government of India's External Affairs Department.

Included in the volume are the following items: a large draft document containing the articles of the 1891 treaty alongside those of the proposed new treaty, with comments in the margins from the Political Resident (ff 21-76); copies of provisional drafts of the new treaty (ff 142-176 and ff 200-232); notes on five meetings in London between the Sultan, the Political Resident, and J P Gibson of the India Office, in March/April 1938 (ff 177-198).

The Arabic language material consists of a letter from the Sultan to the Political Agent (an English translation is included).