سياسي (خارجي) ٨٠٨٨/ ٣١ "مستر بيرترام توماس" [و‎‎٦‎٤‎١] (٤٢/١١)

I'r. Thomas wrote to P. A. Lais cat, on tlie 5th. Cctr.
saying that he was entitled under his contract to one
month r s animal leave that it was desirable for him to
take tills without delay in order to give him time on
returning to dispose of his personal effects etc., and
that he had been able to arrange this with the Council.
2. Subsequently Hr* Thomas arranged with the Council
to extend his leave to six weeks, i.e. one month T s
leave ulus two weeks travelling. Hr. Thomas said he
was proceeding to Dliofar and left for there early in
October. The tali of Dhofar was then on leave at
LIuscat and it was arranged that the Unseat yacht the
ȣL Said" should take the i&li to Dhofar towards the
end of llovember and bring Ur. Thomas back. Actually
Ur. Thomas had made all arrangements for his trip
across the Hub-al-Ehali and had no intention of
returning to Muscat in the "Al Said’. T’e'Al SaiU'left
Muscat on the 30th liovember and must have reached
Dhofar about the 4th December. Ur. Thomas was still
there, but instead of returning by her, he sent oack
to Muscat an application for a month's leave without
pay, which reached Unseat on the l£th December.
Meanwhile Ur. Thoms had started on his journey across
the Sub-al-Khali on the 10th December and no comnunica-
tion could reach him. Mr. Fionas was due to vacate his
appointment on the 31st December on which date also the
Muscat financial year ends. It was therefore most
important that Ur. Thomas should have returned to ’Muscat
firstly to prepare the budget estimates for the comm#
year, Ini secondly to explain the work to his successor.
The actual journey across the Rub-al-Khali too.v 58 aays,
and a further delay occurred m getting fion Qatar to
Bahrain and a steamer from Bahrain to Unseat and he did
not