§ 49. Mr. P. Noel-Bakerasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will publish the text of the agreement made in 1920 between the Sultan of Muscat and Oman and the Imam of Oman, of which the representative of His Majesty's Government was a witness, and to which the representative appended his initials.
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreThe Agreement of Sib, between the Government of the Sultan and the Shaikhs of the various tribes of the interior of Oman, concerned the purely internal affairs of the Sultanate, a sovereign State, and it is not for Her Majesty's Government to publish the text.
§ Mr. Noel-BakerSince we have constantly used British troops in recent years to support the alleged rights of the Sultan, ought not the House to have the text of the treaty which is the legal basis of those rights and which we helped to negotiate?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreI do not think that the Agreement of 1920 is the legal basis for our rights in sending troops to help the Sultan of Muscat and Oman.
§ Mr. Noel-BakerWas the Sunday Times wrong in reporting that the treaty laid down that the Government of the Sultan shall not interfere in the internal affairs of the people of Oman, and is the receipt of revenues from oil not a matter of internal affairs of the people of Oman?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreI am not responsible for reports in any newspaper in this country. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that there is nothing in that agreement which derogated from the sovereignty of the Sultan over the interior of Oman.
§ Mr. Noel-BakerMay I press the Minister? Is not revenue from oil a matter of internal affairs? Have we not sent British troops there to defend the Sultan's right to get those oil revenues? If so, ought we not to have the details of this treaty on which it is based?
§ Mr. Ormsby-GoreI do not think that is at all a clear indication of the policy of the British Government in supporting the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. In fact, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, no oil has been found there.