IOR/L/PS/18/B400

Document outlining the administration and history of Muscat from 1908-28. Covering:

• administration – Sultan of Oman succession history; treaty relations; internal administration by Council of Ministers; role of the Political Agent, Muscat; and the responsibility for expenditure;
• 1908 to 4 October 1913: Sultan Faisal – the successful suppression of arms traffic from Muscat;
• internal history of Muscat from the accession of Sultan Taimur, 4 October 1913 to 1928 – conditions for recognition of Sayid Taimur as ruler by His Majesty's Government; inefficiency of internal administration; proposals by the Political Agent for active interference in internal affairs by the Government of India and His Majesty's Government; the programme of reform accepted by the Sultan as condition of a loan; the results of the reform and loan; negotiations with Omani tribes; financial situation and the decision to employ a British Financial Advisor;
• relations between the Sultan of Muscat and Oman and the Ibadhi Tribes of Oman – the Oman Rebellion, 1913-21;
• foreign relations of Muscat, 1908-28 – treaty relations with France; relations with the United States of America, Dutch Government, Germany, Persia, and Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd];
• miscellaneous questions – the Muscat Order in Council; proposal for the establishment of a British Naval Base in the Musandim [Musandam] Peninsula; cession of Gwadur; oil in Muscat.

It also includes a summary, lists points referred to in connection with the Persian Gulf Sub-Committee, and states the view expressed by the Government of India.

Written by John Gilbert Laithwaite of the India Office.