RECEIVED IN ARCHIV 16 JAN 1961 B4179.4 H.M. CONSULATE-GENERAL, CONFIDENTIAL DETROIT. January 10, 1968. decu Bullock I have just received your letter BA 1791/12 of December 29 about air conditioning at Muscat. 2. As an inspector my prime concern is of course with the Foreign Office establishments overseas for which one naturally has certain standards and can make reasonable comparisons. Nowhere in the Gulf do we supply air conditioning for expatriate staff other than U.K. based ones. I have no doubt it will come, but I think at present we are not out of line with other employers although if I remember correctly one or two oil companies provide senior Indian and Pakistani staff with air conditioned quarters, but this is by no means universal and our behaviour has not I think yet reached the point where fingers can be pointed at us for not providing air conditioning for Indians and Pakistanis. Regrettable as it may be, this is inevitably the Treasury criterion. 3. Muscat is a filthy climate and I remember being hot enough even in October without air conditioning. I have recommended air conditioning for the offices, so that our own expatriate staff will at any rate derive some benefit from this measure and will regard it as a step in the right direction which it undoubtedly is. No doubt in five or ten years' time air conditioning for all people will become universal, when we shall presumably have to fall into line. There is no doubt, however, that Indians and Pakistanis feel the heat far less than Europeans and can support it better. 4. Dr. Sen is in quite a different category. Expenditure on him and his hospital is, so to speak, in theory if not in fact out of an operational budget rather than an establishment one. I would regard expenditure on him as being in line with expenditure on the Subsidy or on the Trucial States Development Scheme. That is to say, it is an operational expense and not an establishment one. It is therefore all the harder to judge in a budget of many thousands of pounds which matters come first, i.e. whether it is not more important to provide extra facilities at the hospital in the way of equipment or medicines for the patients rather than air conditioning for the doctor. I would think, for example, that if the choice had to be made between Dr. Sen's quarters and an air conditioned room for the treatment of heat stroke, that the latter would take priority: it all depends how much money we have to spend, and what are the more urgent priorities. Certainly if Dr. Sen has been incapacitated through an excema rash for part of last summer he would have a strong case for some relief. He is an admirable man and obviously if the doctor is to be laid up the work of the hospital such as it is comes to a standstill. /5. E.A.W. Bullock Esq., Foreign Office, London, S.w.l. CONFIDENTIAL
