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APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE
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Appendix, No 8. Highness Syud Toorkee tlie decision of the Government of India with reference to the
case of that chief.
5. The Supreme Government having at the same time accorded its sanction to the
appointment of a duly qualified officer as the representative of the British Government
at Muscat, and this appointment having been conferred on you, you will, as already
directed, proceed to Muscat in the suite of the Bev. Mr. Badger, who has been furnished
' with a letter from his Excellency the Governor, accrediting you to his Highness Syud
Thoweynee. On your installation at Muscat, Mr. Badger will communicate to you such
instruction and advice as he may deem necessary for ensuring due efficacy to the proceedings
which he may adopt in carrying out the objects of his mission.
6. His Excellency the Governor in Council desires that, on your arrival at Muscat,
you will confer with Mr. H. Rassam on all points concerning our political relations with
his Highness Syud Thoweynee, and with other chiefs of rank, whether dependent on or
independent oí Muscat. His Excellency in Council feels sure that you will always bear
in mind the bond of friendship which has for so long a period existed between the Chiefs
of Muscat and the British Government ; that you will employ your utmost influence in
cultivating between Muscat, Zanzibar, and Sobar those amicable feelings towards the
establishment of which so much pains are being taken by the Government of Bombay and
the Government of India; that you will keep the Resident at Bushire fully informed on
every subject which it may in any way concern the British representative there to be
cognizant of; that you will constantly contemplate the prospect of our requiring the
cordial and active co-operation of the authorities at Muscat in establishing and protecting
(entirely at our cost) a line of electric telegraph thence along the coast of Mekran, obtaining
with this view exact information regarding the degree of subjection in which the
inhabitants of that coast from the Persian Gulf to Sonmeanee are held by Muscat, or
Khelat, or by any other authority ; and that you will be courteous and circumspect in
your intercourse with French, American, or other European officers of rank visiting the
port of Muscat.
7. You will not fail to bear in mind that the suppression of the slave trade is an object
which the British Government has very much at heart, and his Excellency the Governor
in Council relies on your good temper and tact for enlisting his Highness the Imam of
Muscat in aid of it.
8. In the discharge of your ordinary duties, you will be careful, as a general rule, to
avoid all needless interference with the claims of traders and others against Arab chiefs
and tribes within the limits of your control, and to extend the protection of the British
flag to none save British subjects, when such protection is absolutely necessary.
9. Finally, I am desired to request that you will keep a diary of all your proceedings
and of such events as you may deem noteworthy, transmitting a copy of it with your
reports, whenever opportunities offer, to the Political Department of this Government, to
which you must consider yourself directly subordinate.
I have, &G.
(signed) A. Kinloclt Forhes,
Bombay Castle, 1 May 1861. Acting Secretary to Government.
From Sir George Clerk, K.C.B., Governor of Bombay, to His Highness Syud Tkoxoeynee
bin Saeed bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat.
0,—These friendly lines are to inform your Highness that we have appointed
Lieutenant Walter Murray Pengelley, of the Indian Navy, to be British Agent with your
Highness at Muscat, in succession to Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, _ Confiding in his ability
and discretion, we recommend him to your Highness’s recognition and favour. He will
be the ordinary channel of communication between the two Governments, and we doubt
not that your Highness, as heretofore, will co-operate heartily with Lieutenant Pengelley
in all matters connected with the interests of the British Government and its subjects
within your territories. We regret much, on your account and our own, that it is necessary
for Mr. Rassam to return to Aden; but we confidently hope that Lieutenant
Peno-elley will prove equally acceptable to you, and that he will continue to maintain
the Sime friendly relations with your Highness which have characterised Mr. Rassam’s
agency at Muscat, and which have gained for him the high approbation of this Government;
and so we bid you farewell.
(signed) G. Clerk.
Bombay, 29 April 1861.
