PERSIAN GUN-RUNNERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3195, 22 May 1909, Page 3

PERSIAN GUN-RUNNERS.

CAPTURE BY A BRITISH CRUISER. In view of the statement that rifles discarded by the New Zealand Government have been found in the possession of tribesmen on the northern frontier of India, the following extract from a recent issue of the London "Standard" is of interAt daylight on March 7ch his Majesty's ship Fox (Captain A. T. Hunt) captured a dhow off Jack, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, after an exciting chase of over an hour. The dhow was engaged in "gun-running," and was full to the gunwale of rifles and ammunition. The Fox has only just joined this part of the East Indies station, and it is considered that this capture is rather a feather in the cap of Captain Hunt, "as she is the first dhow that has oeen captured for over a year, and the first for many years to be captured on the high seas. Muscat (or Mascat) has, according to the "Encyclopaedia," a large export trade, which consists of pearls, fish, dates, etc., but the chief export is not even hinted at, i.e., modern rifles. There rifles are imported by the thousand by the French and Belgian traders at Muscat. One warehouse is stated to contain at the present time as many as 100,000. As all the European armies have been rearmed within the last few years with small-bore rifles, rifles of the older patterns can be purchased by the thousand for a song, and their import into Muscat is a legitimate trade. Here they are sold to the Arab traders, and run over to Persian territory in small, fast dhows. In Persia the dhows are met at various points by Afghan traders, who afterwards collect inland at a given rendezvous to form a large caravan. These caravans may consist of any number of men up to 1,500, with several thousands of camels, and may carry as many as 10,000 rifles and the appropriate amount of ammunition. The rifles are chiefly the .45 calibre, but in each consignment there is a ■sprinkling of a smaller bore, high velocity weapous, which seem to be chiefly used as presents to the influential chiefs on the caravan route, who are strong enough to make the passage of the caravan difficult. Arrived in. the hills of Afghanistan the rifles are sold at a large profit. A rifle that is sold at Muscat for 30s will fatch as m;:ch as £ls or £2O in the Afridi or Modmand country. As most of these rifles find their way into the Northern hills of India, England is naturally most interested in stopping the trade. Owing to our treaties it seems to be impossible to prevent the importation of the rifles into Muscat, although, to the onlooker, this seems to be the most natural way of putting a stop to the trade. It is said that the Sultan of Muscat clears £B,OOO a year on the import duty on the rifles. The cost of an Afridi outbreak—the possibility of which depends very much on the power of the tribesmen to obtain rifles—would cover the* cost of the subvention over and over again. However, it seems as if this course were impossible, so we provide a few ships of war which try to patrol the zone of the Persian-Gulf, and capture the dhows carrying the arms across. Last year 40,000 liflea are known to be "run" with perfect impunity, and r.ot a single one of the c hows was captured; the last capture was by his Majesty's ship Proserpine, over 18 months ago. ;