Minutes 25 JAN 1961 Mr. Aidan Crawley and Muscat and Oman Please see Mr. Donald's minute of January 1l attached. I understand that Lord Lansdowne became aware privately of the possibility that Mr. Aidan Crawley might publish embarrassing material about the Sultanate and it was for that reason that he took the initiative in arranging for the Secretary of State to write to Mr. Crawley on January 12. 2. I have now seen a copy of Mr. Crawford's record of conversation with Mr. Aidan Crawley on January 17. Mr. Crawley did not say much about Muscat, but what he did say (para. (d) of Mr. Crawford's record) shows that he realises Arab reports of fighting are untrue. It is nevertheless possible that Mr. (or Mrs.) Crawley will write something about the Sultanate which will embarrass us, whether from the U.N. angle or because it will offend the Sultan. The latter would be particularly unfortunate at a time when we have made a little progress with the Sultan on correspondents and when in particular he was very pleased with the BBC correspondent, Noel Clark. NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN 3. I doubt whether there is anything we can do to supplement the Secretary of State's letter of January 12, but it is just conceivable that if Mr. (or Mrs.) Crawley did write something tiresome about the Sultanate, and if we remonstrat ed with him later, he might say that he called at the Foreign Office after receipt of the Secretary of State's letter of January 12, but nothing special had been said to him about the Sultanete 4. Perhaps we should do nothing and hope for the best; alternatively I wonder if it might be possible for Mr. Crawford to telephone to Mr. Aidan Crawley to say that he has now seen the Secretary of State's letter of January 12 and would be very happy to talk things over with Mr. Crawley. 5. I should perhaps add that Mr. Crawley's visit to Muscat was reported by the Consulate-General (please see Mr. Phillips' letter of November 20 at BA 1631/9), but at that time it did not seem to me necessary to do more than mark the papers to I.P.D. and News Department. Eftballosh (E.A.W. Bullock) 37775 (1372) A.O.St.
