about their work with a will. He also engaged an English official, D.V. McCullum, to supervise the reorganizati on of the Finance Department. Thereafter the finances of the Government slowly recovered; there were no deficits in the annual Budgets and the loan installments were paid off regularly. The English official engaged in 1920 stayed for only six months however, and, in the absence of a successor, Sultan Taimur appointed Mohammed bim Ahmed Al Ghashan, then Wali of Matrah, as his Minister responsible for financial affairs. This situation prevailed until the end of 1924, when there was a deficit due to the negligence of the responsible officer and the maladministra tion of the Treasury Officer, as a result of which the State finances were so shaken as to make it impossible to pay the installments of the loan at the proper time. The second period begins in 1925 when, in view of the poor state of Government finances, Sultan Taimur bin Faisal decided to engage a new official to reorganize them. He selected an English man, Nir. Bertram Thomas, whom he appointed as Finance Minister, on a five-year contract, with a brief to improve the financial position of the Government. Thomas was the first Westerner to cross the Empty wuarter, doing so from Dhofar to watar in 54 days). At the outset he exerted considerable efforts which produced a measure of improvement in financial affairs but unfortunately this improvement was not maintained for more than three years, after which the financial situation again deterio rated and the Government ceased to pay-off the installments of the loan. This was due to the maladministration of the official referred to in the previous period when Government spending exceeded the agreed Budget leading to a deficit and disorder in State finances. The balance of payments was upset and unpaid installments of the loan, and other expenditure, piled up, /constituting
