IOR/R/15/6/409

The file concerns proposals for the improvement of the mail service in Muscat and Oman. Muscat was said in 1944 to have been 'ill supplied with mail facilities for many months, resulting in serious delays in delivery of official mail and excessive expenditure on telegrams' (folio 45). The commercial community of Muscat was also affected, and offered to pay for improvements.

The papers include: a petition from members of the commercial community of Muscat, calling for the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service to and from India via Masirah to make an extra stop at Ras al Hadd [Ra’s al Ḩadd], so that mails and passengers could be brought from there to Muscat by launch (folios 2-3); the proposed involvement of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the collection of mails at Ras al Hadd; discussion of the proposals in correspondence between the Political Agent, Muscat, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the Government of India, RAF Aden, and RAF Masirah; correspondence concerning the provision of guards for the service; and proposals for the transmission of official mail from Ras al Hadd to India via Bahrain, and vice versa.