'Muscat reforms: customs; finances and negotiations with Omanis' [‎86r] (176/508)

Tti© Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. ,
Bushire, 31st December 1919.
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In the last portion of my telegram No .C-16 dated 13/l2/i9
I said that it was not usual to place the "Lawrence" at the
disposal of Political Agents unless she was in the neighbouhood
©xcept under circums^nces of exceptional urgency or importance,
I may as well amplify this a little perhaps though the reasons
for not doing so are fairly obyious. They are mainly financial,
*
of oouree, as it costs a lot to send the "Lawrence" from here
to Muscat especially as she nearly always would have to go up
to Mohammerah to water first. The "Lawrenbe" burns one ton of
coal for every ten miles - it is about 1600 miles to Muscat
miles
and back - 160 tons plus (say) 300^up to Mohammerah and back
30 tons. Roughly speaking 800 tons of coal. The Chief
Engineer of the "Lawrence" told me Welsh coal is reckoned at
R9,150/- a ton now, which would make total cost of coal
Rs,30,000/-. The Deputy Assistant Director Works here happened
to mention a prooos of the conderser that he was told to reckon
coal at Rs.SOO/- a ton, which if correct would iftouble the
figure. In any case whether the figure is Rs,30,000/- or
60,000/- it is rather prohibitive.
Again if the "Lawrence" were placed at disposal of Politic^lj|
Agent, Muscat, to go to sur or elsewhere there is no valid
reason why she should not "be placed at disposal of Political
Agent, Bahrain, to go to Kattf, or Ojair or Dohab when he
wants to do so; or at the disposal of the Consul, Bandar Abbas
when he wants to go to Lingah and so on.
In fact in former days it was very seldom that occasions
of sufficient importance arose to warrant "Lawrence" being
placed at the disposal of a political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , as when such
important^ affairs occurred ( i.e. Bunder JI spli affair
in arms traffic matters, negociations re Arms warehouse
etc etc) the Resident always used to proceed to the scene in
person.
S,L.Wlngate,Esqr,,1,0,S.,
political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. ft H ,M , s Consul,
MUSCAT.