Monge, vice-consul of France at Zaila, had bought Ambabo, and shortly afterwards Henri Lambert, French consul at Aden, bought the town and territory of Obok.
It has post and telegraph offices; and agencies of some mercantile firms, a British vice-consul (since 1904) and a Russian consular agent (since 1902) are established there.
After having been vice-consul at Shanghai and acting consul in 1900 at Tientsin, he entered the Foreign Office in 1902 in a subordinate capacity and rose by 1910 to be director of the Political Section.
The Committee of 1903 was appointed to inquire, inter alia, whether the limits of age-25 to 50 - for candidates should be altered, and whether service as a vice-consul for a certain period should be required to qualify for promotion to the rank of consul; whether means could not be adopted to give consular officers opportunities of increasing their practical knowledge of commercial matters and to bring them more into personal contact with the commercial community.
British vice-consul, succeeded in concluding a treaty with the king Overami.
