ARABIAN DEPARTMENT
QENERAL
SUBJECT:
FROM
Colonel Boer steed
land Sultanate of Muscat and Oman
CONFIDENTIAL
and the Qu'aiti State of the East
No.
Aden Protectorate w 1961.
Dated October 18
Received October 27
References
MINUTES
obvious
There are many more flaws in the analogy
on which Col. Boustead's memorandum is based,
between the Sultanate and the relatively small Qu'aiti
State with its relatively urbanised communities.
One basic difference of course is the much greater
locus standi which H.M.G. enjoy in the latter due
to their different political relationship. There is
little doubt that had we decided in 1895 to establish
a Protectorate relationship with the Sultanate, there
would exist there today the framework of a modern
economy and administration. We did not do so and
there is much force in the criticisms, set out in Col.
Boustead's covering letter, of the present set-up.
(Outward Action)
DA) Col. J.E.H. Boustead , Abel 2. These weaknesses were however fully
recognised when we last assessed our relationship
Dhabi from A.R. Walmsley.
with the Sultanate (draft Cabinet paper at BA1053/5
Now. is. Hy L]
of 1960). The moments if at all, for again
reviewing our basic relationship will be :
04
(a) in 1963, before August 24, by when our subsidy
arrangements have to be reviewed;
(b) in 1966, before May 19, by when both parties
will need to consider the question of renewing
the 1951 Treaty;
(c) should any fundamental change take place in
our policy of protecting Kuwait and the other
Persian Gulf Shaikhdoms.
(Action
completed)
(Main Indexed)
A vital factor will be whether oil is found in
commercial quantities in the Sultanate, thus swelling
the Sultan's own revenues. The latest news from
Petroleum Development (Oman) Ltd., who plan to drill
for nine months out of twelve in 1962, suggests that
we may know the answer to this before (a) or at any
rate before (b). Before we know this, and unless (c) has
intervened, there is little point in embarking on
another elaborate reassessment of our relationship.
We
J174 59237–1
