Well, we are talking here about
http://www.home.pages.at/maxifant/Frames/gwadar.htm
- Gwadar, Gwadur, Guadar - it's all the same actually in different
tranliteration.
To claim that Sultan Said "offered" it "for sale" is ludicrous, as
well as the claim that there were offers from the UK, Iran and the
USSR. The story of Gwadar is well covered in some recently published
sources, though little is found about it in the Internet. Muscat
reliquished sovereignty over Gwadar in 1958, after many years of
Pakistani efforts to obtain that piece of territory. Sultan Said
always refused to negotiate directly with Pakistan, and authority was
not handed over to Pakistan, but under an arrangement made with the
BRITISH (not Pakistani) government, he withdrew his administrators
from Gwadar in September 1958 and Pakistani officials arrived hours
later to take over. The refusal to negotiate with Pakistan and the
absence of a formal handover to Pakistan seem to indicate that he did
not accept the loss of Gwadar, and that he wanted to show that he only
yielded to British pressure. On the other hand, he was very precise as
to the amounts of money to be paid to him through the British
government and how and where they were to be deposited. If I remember
correctly, it was the equivalent of 3 million pound sterling, paretly
to be paid in US dollars. Also in 1958, Sultan Said insisted that the
agreement of 1891 entered into by his grandfather Sultan Faisal with
Britain "never to cede, sell or mortgage" any part of his territory to
a foreign power should be abolished (and it was abolished by an
agreement in the form of an exchange of letters). He probably argued
that he was now asked to cede Muscat territory - i.e. Gwadar - to a
foreign nation, exactly what the British had requested Muscat NOT to
do in 1891 ...
Joachim Duester
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Lowell G. McManus"
<mcmanus71496@m...> wrote:
> Gwadur is a port in southwestern Pakistan. It was a coastal enclave
belonging
> to the Sultan of Muscat between 1797 and 1958, when it was offered
for sale.
> The Sultan chose to sell it to Pakistan, despite better offers from
the UK,
> Iran, and even the USSR!
>
> Lowell G. McManus
> Leesville, Louisiana, USA
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "L. A. Nadybal" <lnadybal@c...>
> To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 5:54 PM
> Subject: [BoundaryPoint] New Subject - Gwadur
>
>
> > I found a recent philatelic reference to Gwadur - and it's having been
> > purchased by Pakistan in 1958. THe reason it is of interest, is that
> > it was one of three locations where India ran post offices in other
> > countries - Dubai, Muskat and Gwadur. When Pakistan separated from
> > India on 15 August 1947, it took over the three post offices. A few
> > months later, on April 15, 1948, the office in Muskat and Dubai were
> > taken over by the British; Gwadur's post office remained Pakistani.
> > Ten years later, in 1958, Pakistan bought Gwadur. End of story.
> >
> > Question. Where is it, from whom was it purchased, and is it now an
> > exclave of Pakistan?
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Len Nadybal