Minutes
We can and should however press on with
assessing the chances of the Sultan
obtaining development aid from other
sources than H.M.G. - e.g. W.H.O. (if
he joins) and/or the Colombo Plan.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
3. Of Col. Boustead's detailed
criticisms, I think that the most
important is that relating tothe Sultan's
attitude to education: on this please
see the minute and draft on Boustead's
separate memorandum entered at BC 1742/3.
The answers to some of the other detailed
points in paragraph 3 of Col. Boustead's
letter are inherent in our present
Civil Development programme, and the
only problem on them is to ensure that
the programme is implemented without
undue delay. For example, we hope very
soon to appoint a Principal Medical
Officer (the - we trust - "final"
Selection Board is to be held today),
and once the Sohar agricultural station
has been begun there will be a case for
appointing a Senior Agricultural Officer.
Both these appointments should lead to
recommendations (by their holders) for
a lasting administrative set-up. Public
works is a more difficult problem: the
Sultan is still hoping to employ at his
own expense a Resident Engineer, having
So far rejected the idea that he should
make do with the consultative services
of a firm like Halcrows. We may have
to consider whether we should not accept
this fact, and offer the Sultan help
in finding a suitable candidate, who
would in turn be the nuclebus of a small
Public Works department. In the meantime,
I think it is true that the S.A.F. in
their own interests will help to ensure
that roads, at any rate, are kept under
good repair.
There remains two other
criticisms - at (i) and (ii) of para.
2 of Col. Boustead's covering letter.
According to our information, the Sultan
decided in November 1959 to appoint
Sayyid Tarig Inspector of Walis in
Central Oman (BA 1015/105 of 1959 and
BA 1015/13 of 1960). It is doubtful,
however, whether Tarig has been given
enough authority to carry out the job
effectively. It is possible that the
Sultan has in mind to give some respons ibility of this kind to Shaikh Ahmad bin
Mohamed al Hai thi, who he told us was
going to spend part of his time on
centralised work at the Ministry of the
Interior. We might ask Mr. Phillips
about this. If Col. Boustead has been
/ discussing
37775 (1372) A.O.St.
