مجموعة ٩/٣٠(٢) "تقارير إدارية عن الخليج الفارسي - ١٩٤٥ -" [و‎‎٣‎٠‎١] (١١٤٨/٦٠١)

REPORT ON THE MUSCAT INFANTRY FOR THE YEAR 1943.
(D MUSCAT DEFENCES .
The condition of the local defences of Muscat and Matrah
are excellent. No major repairs have been made nor are any
required to the permanent defensive works such as forts, town
walls etc. This is fortunate as, had any been required they
Wol Tif have toeen *fflpo»Bifcle to carry out as cement is almost
unobtainable and there have been no contractors in Muscat
during the last year. Practically all the carpenters and
masons are employed at Has al Hadd and Masirah. Minor repairs
are required to Mirani Fort and Bait-al-FalaiJ. ^
. ,. outer defences of Bait-al-FalaiJ have been completely
rebuilt and the line considerably shortened. This was deemed
necessary owing to the difficulties of communication. The
defensive arrangements for the protection of Bait-al-Falaij and
the approaches to Matrah and Muscat from the Batinah and Oman
are now based more on the fire power of automatic weapons and
artillery rather than on man-power as was previously the case.
in addition to the 2.76 and two 3-pdr. guns at Bait-al-
^alaij we now have a 12-pdr. gun which was salvaged from s.s.
uahpu . This gun is in the process of being mounted but awaits
the services of a gunnery export whom the naval authorities have
kindly promised to send down.
(2) BATINAH COAST .
It has not been possible to carry out a tour of the
coast since November 1942 owing to the lack of spare parts and
tyres for lorries and to the fact that the launch was wrecked
early in the year.
(3) MU NCH .
This continued to give good service until March. During
a heavy ^himal in this month she broke her moorings in Muscat
Bay arid tabued ashore at the Consulate steps. She re m ained
here throughout three tides when she was finally floated off
between two lighters. I took all steps to lighten her during
the storm but heavy seas carried away her upper work completely.
In addition she was badly holed on both sides of the hull. This
was repaired by the end of June but It was not until September
that I was able to get any carpenters to carry out the real work
of reconstruction. There has been practically no wood avail
able here for the past year and the work has been difficult,
however the work was completed by the 26th November, the only
work now remaining is the fitting of the sails. She will be in
service again by December.
(4) WIK&gSS.
Please refer to my report on 1942. Nothing further can
be done until expert assistance can be obtained. In my last
report I statoci that four of the seven generators cracked
petrol tanks. Two of these have now been made serviceable
making a total in all of five.
(6) acam .
The Force has been between 10 and 26 under strength
during the year. Desertions have been very little above pre-war
years and lov/or than 1942$ unfortunately this year practically
no recruits have come in. This is due to the high cost of