160
APPENDIX TO EEPOET I'EOM SELECT COMMITTEE
Appendix, No. 8.
* Muscat Report,
paragraph 51.
t Muscat Report,
paragraphs 44 and
45.
X Appendix B, reply
to Query 14.
§ Muscat Report,
paragraph 54,
Appendix G.
jj Muscat Report,
Appendix H.
li" Muscat Report,
paragraphs 56, 57,
and Appendix I.
** Äluscat Report,
paragraph 58.
ft Appendix L,
paragraph 14.
+Î Appendix B,
reply to Query 32.
§§ Muscat Report,
Appendix I.
11 Appendix B, reply
to Query 33.
Letter No. 8,
Muscat-Zanzibar
Commission.
*** Colonel Rigby’s
letter, No. 110, of
1859.
tft Muscat Report,
paragraph 31.
case to the arbitration of the Governor General, I understood that an oflScer would be sent
to Zanzibar to institute the necessary inquiries, and as I deemed it desirable to have an
agent on the spot to represent me, I decided to send Hamed bin Salem in that capacity.
My intention in this respect was communicated to Colonel Russell. I do not deny having
written the letter to Syud Majeed, but I declare that it was one of friendship merely, and
that any overtures which might have been made by Hamed bin Salem, in consequence of
that letter, were by no means designed to set aside the final arbitration of the Governor
General. My intention was, by previously establishing a more friendly understand in«'
with Syud Majeed, to render the task of arbitration easier, and the result more satisfactory
to both parties.”* Allowing for a certain degree of native disingenuousness in this apology,
it is not devoid of plausibility ; and further, it is very questionable whether Syud
Thoweynee fully appreciated the extent of restraint which he had voluntarily incurred bv
accepting the arbitration of a third party. On all such points of international law,
Syud Majeed had the advantage of Colonel Rigby’s constant advice and guidance ;
whereas the British agent at Muscat at the time was an illiterate Jew, who was as
incapable of advising Syud Thoweynee as his Highness was naturally backward to consult
him.
33. For the remaining charges brought against Syud Thoweynee, of having, through his
agents and others, created disaffection at Zanzibar, and excited the El-Harth tribe to rebel
against Syud Majeed, I must refer the Honourable the Governor in Council to my Muscat
report, where his Highness’s vindication of himself is also recorded.f On a careful review
of the whole, it appears to me that, although Syud Thoweynee had not ceased to correspond
directly with the disaffected at Zanzibar, and endeavoured to maintain a party there
favourable to his ulterior views, nevertheless he is not justly chargeable with many of the
acts alleged against his agents, nor with having instigated the rebellion of the El-Harth
in October 1859. I am confirmed in this conclusion by the opinion of Colonel Rigby,
who, in writing of that tribe, says—“ Their rebellion last year was not intended to favour
either Syud Thoweynee or Syud Barghâsh, but with the liope of getting rid of the whole
family of the late Imam, and then obtaining possession of the government.Moreover, the
charges made against Hamed bin Salem, as Syud Thoweynee’s ¡mincipal agent, in fomentinothe
insurrection at Zanzibar, are considerably qualified by the friendly tenor of the letters
addressed to that individual on his final departure for Muscat by Syud Majeed himself ; §
and Suleiman bin Hamed, his Highness’ Vizier, in whose integrity Colonel Rigby formerly
placed great confidence, but whom he has since had cause to regard as a most unprincipled
man, did not hesitate, in a letter to Syud Thoweynee, to imply that Colonel Rigby was in
some degree responsible for the rebellion of 1859, and for the subsequent conduct of Syud
Barghâsh. (|
34. The numerous charges made against Syud Thoweynee, of having acted throughout
under French influence, were rebutted by his Highness in the manner already reported.
1 am further able to confirm his account of the paper submitted to him by the French
Commodore De Bangle** by the admission of Syud Majeed, who,in his written statement,tf
relates that, on being appealed to by the former to do so, he had directed his vizier
Suleiman bin Hamed, to draw up a document of precisely the same import as that described
by Syud Thoweynee as having been handed to him at Muscat by the French Commodore.
Equally inconclusive in proof of this general imputation is the statement of Colonel Rigby
that the French Consul was known to be carrying on a very active correspondence with
Syud Thoweynee. The letters from Muscat to the disaffected Arabs here (Zanzibar) were
sent under cover to the French Consul.That no collusion existed in this matter
between the parties referred to is evident from the tenor of the French Consul’s official
despatch to Syud Thoweynee, wherein he specially requests His Highness not to enclose
any letters for the Arabs at Zanzibar in the letters which he may do him the honour to
address to him. §§ Moreover, Syud Majeed frankly acknowledged* that he had no evidence
to prove that his brother had been acting under the influence of the French; and Colonel
Rigby himself, who had framed several of his inferential charges against Syud Thoweynee,
in that respect, on the assertions of the then French Consul at Zanzibar, now writes—
Trom subsequent exqierience, I have very little faith in anything the French Consul
said on any subject.” ||¡¡
But if Syud Thoweynee is justly chargeable in any degree with having intrigued
against Syud Majeed after he had consented to refer the settlement of his claims to the
arbitration of the Governor General of India, Syud Majeed is equally open to the imputation
of having kept up a secret correspondence with Syud Toorkee of Sohar, who was
well known to be disaffected towards his suzerain at Muscat, and was actively plottinowith
the tribes and with the Wahabees to undermine his authority over Oman.f 1Í The explanation
given by Syud Majeed of the guns, money, and munitions of war, despatched by
him to Syud Toorkee in March 1859, is undoubtedly very plausible ;*** but under the circumstances
of the case, it fails to carry conviction to the mind of anyone well versed in
the sophistry and equivocation of the Arabs. The letter also written by Syud Majeed at the
commencement of the current year to his brother at Sohar, advising him of a remittance
of 2,000 dollars, which letter was intercepted by Syud Thoweynee,j-j-j- is another ground
of suspicion against the former ; and in a subsequent part of this report I shall have occasion
to add some further considerations which will tend to confirm the opinion here expressed—that
His Highness, Syud Majeed, chiefly with a view to strengthen his own position.
