IOR/R/15/1/451

The volume contains correspondence, reports and other papers relating to the Muscat Government’s finances between March 1935 and January 1941. The principal correspondents in the volume are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (chiefly Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, who held the post up until August 1939), and the Political Agent at Muscat (chiefly Major Ralph Ponsonby Watts from June 1935 until April 1939, and Captain Tom Hickinbotham from April 1939).

The volume is largely comprised of copies of the quarterly submissions received by the Political Agent at Muscat from the Muscat Government’s Director of Revenues, and then forwarded onwards to the Political Resident. These submissions include: statements of progressive receipts and expenditure for Muscat State, annual state budgets, and other items, such as cash on hand statements. The budget sheets give details of the various appointments and salaries across the Muscat Government’s various departments, including: the civil list, government employees, civil courts, Qadhis [Qādī], forts, police, defence, plus figures for transport, rations, arms and ammunition, building repairs, etc. The volume also includes correspondence between the Political Resident and the Secretary (or Deputy Secretary) to the Government of India, to whom copies of the Muscat State accounts were sent. This correspondence covers queries about the accounts, addressing discrepancies or unexpected rises and falls in the figures.

At the front of the volume (folio 2) is a letter from the Political Agent in Muscat to the Political Resident, dated 11 January 1935, confirming that Saiyyid Nadir [Nādir bin Fayṣal bin Turkī] has finally accepted his reduced allowance from the State. Earlier correspondence on this matter can be found in the preceding subject file ‘File 35/137 III (A 63) Muscat state budget’ (IOR/R/15/1/450).