Show HE HISTORY of the traffic in arms which goes on between eu rope and afghanistan via muscat dates from the year 1881 when a england in guaranteeing the in sm dependence of the amir agreed to Q supply him with rifles and am from india at a reason able price to assist him to main tain that independence these privileges the amir soon began to abuse by establishing a cartridge factory at kabul and by trading in arms with the border tribes who eventually became a menace to the towns and villages an n the indian frontier and even to afghanistan itself after a while the advent of smokeless powder and modern arms rendered the kabul factory obsolete and the indian government about this time stopped the supply of arms to the amir hence arose an extraordinary demand for mod ern rills s and ammunition both for th amir and for the border tribes the selling price at kabul of a small box rifle rose to as much as 60 hal hal said the afghan traders rubbing their hands there Is money to be made here we will get rifles from europe and the sultan of oman who lives at muscat will no doubt help us now in 1864 the sultan of oman had made a treaty with france by which he was allowed to import and export arms without interference to enable his forces to keep out the warlike bed bouins of the interior the usefulness of this treaty from a business point of view was pointed out to the sultan by the traders and he delightfully fell in with their ak 1 k qa scheme rifles by the thousand began to arrive at muscat from europe and the sultan by imps ing a six per cent duty on all imports and ex ports of arms etc saw his income increasing by leaps and bounds the traders sent their agents to muscat and arranged for the arms to be con keyed in dhows across the gulf of oman to per sia while parties of afghans came down to the makrin coast collected camels and transported the arms northward to their own country this gilaty of 1864 Is thus the secret of the wh whole 0 le of the trouble efforts were made at the 1908 89 9 international arms traffic convention held at brussels to induce the french government to annul the treaty but intrain the result is that the british east indies squadron had to be strengthened and a rigorous blockade of the gulf of oman established involving great ex pense to both british and indian governments could this fifty year old treaty be annulled the british warships would prevent arms being land ed at muscat and the whole gun running business would collapse steamers of many nationalities land arms at muscat where they are stored until the gudrun gun run ning ong season begins this lasts from december to april the heat at other times being opples a ive caravans can only travel when food and water Is obtainable tor for the camels some of the arms are conveyed to madarah a port about three miles from muscat at these two ports dhows are laden with arms under cover of night and leave whenever opportunity offers by keeping within three miles of the arabian coast a dhow Is tree free from capture but outside that limit the nakoda hakoda captain cannot eay say a word it if his rifles are confiscated and his vessel sunk by a british Britis lr manof man of ot war Is another depot tor for arms and Is supplied from muscat three courses are open to dhows 1 to make male a bold dash from muscat to per sia sla this is dangerous involving a long passage part of which must be in daylight 2 to hug the coast to the westward and with a favorable breeze to negotiate the thirty miles or so across on a dark night 3 to creep along the coast to the south using karkat aa as a jumping off place A dhow would then steer for karachi and at the approach of night would alter course and make straight tor for the vicinity of tivadar the blockading squadron consists of H M ships fox philomel proserpine perseus alert odin redbreast and Esp Es legle and la Is called the persian gulf division in addition there are seven steam launches hired from the british india steamship company by the india govern ment and armed these launches are officered and partly manned by the royal navy of course this squadron cannot be maintained in the gulf at full strength or anything like it as ships must periodically refit and the crews recuperate at bombay or colombo the organization of the blockade Is in the hands of capt A T hunt of the box whose ability in coping with the traffic has obtained a double reward retard an admiralty ex tension of his appointment and the execrations of the baffled trades of kabul the system of intelligence which has been or Is nearly perfect the wireless station at jask transmits to the fox news of uie the depart lire ure of dhows from muscat and also any informs don regarding the presence of afghan caravans or dr the landing of arms on the persian coast cap tain hunt disposes bis his available vessels along the dekran coast according to the needs of the moment ships cutters and pinn acen armed with maxim guns are sent away in charge of officers and lie in near likely landing places ahr ft ro tor for about a fortnight and k 71 1 W a C Z V X ey ya 11 j abeso TZ buist make the best of it until their ship comes roun round again to them the threemile three mile rule does not obtain on the persian side and a dhow may be destroyed on the beach it she has cairned arms and the arms may be followed up by a landing party if necessary few dhows sue suc aeed in getting across with arms and the num her which attempt the passage Is growing beau less still the blockade must not be re labed the NIr wireless eless station at jask is of great inter est having been recently erected by the indian government inside a concession obtained from persia it Is the bete noire ot of the afghans as it betrays all their doings and they have threat ened it with destruction it Is guarded by b a de tach ment of indian troops and surrounded by vire wire entanglements and earthworks there Is a cable from muscat to jask and a land wire from the latter to charban life on board ship Is monotonous broken only by the occasional boarding of a dhow and the disappointment of finding a cargo no more harm tul ful than dates malls fortunately are regular as they arrive weekly from bombay and the mall mail steamers are constantly bringing stores and fruit tor for the fleet fruit Is liberally served as a pos poo sible preventive ot of beri beriberi beri leave to the ships companies la Is rare whilst in the gult gulf but occa elonar parties are landed should the fish be bay one may walk inland with a gun and bring down a bird or two the season Is now commencing and with a concentration in the gulf of all available ships it Is hoped that during the next few months the traffic in arms will be brought to a standstill early in october the persian authorities at linga appealed to the senior officer of the block ading abing squadron tor for protection information had reached the persians that brigands were march ing to attack the town marines and blue jackets eta were landed and proceeded to mount guns tor for the protection ot of the town to make certain ot of their cash the customs officers brought their bags ot of gold on board 11 M S fox an incident with a distinctly humorous side enlivened subsequent proceedings and something ot of the kind was badly needed because the enemy did not materialize the pirate brigand sheikh maziur had heard of the persians difficulty and hurried to their as assistance stance seventy miles from linga maziur landed presumably to do a little raiding ra iding on his own account leaving his three dhows anchored he plunged inland while absent H M S odin came along and seized the three dhows which were towed to linga there it was discovered that maziur had some time ago taken one ot of the dhows from some persians to whom Is was returned the other two dhows were aall saturated with kerosene and burned off the town as a warning to any persons who contemplated following the example of the sheikh when the flames had attained a good hold a bag of powder on one of the dhows exploded send ing up a beautiful column of white smoke |