'Muscat Rising, from April 1917 to January 1918 & resumed from April 1920 to Oct 1920' [‎222r] (456/558)

i*X'
4th August 1920.
y/fo
Dear Colonel Trevor
The events of the last fortnight have been
both interesting anl amusing, and very much like what I was
sure tht^r woull be if we took a sensible line of policy. They
are not yet enied and therefore I am giving you a demi-official
narrative of events to explain the situation until I am in a
position to write a full official report* Please use any of
this officially if yoU-think fit.
As you know my policy here, from the very
beginning has been " make the Sultan ! s government strong and
matters will solve themselves^ • At the same time I tried to
come to some sort of agreement with the interior people as this
had been started by Haworth, though you possibly know that I ■
was rather sceptical as to the result.
What I do not think we fully realise is
that the present situation In Oman and the absolute decay of
the Sultan's government which had reached Its nadir when I
arrived has been entirely our fault. It Is true that the
personal Imbecility of the Sultans, the loss of Zanzibar and
of sea power etc had something to do with it, but these things
were nothing as compared to the utter futility and shortsight-
-edness of our policy here. British influence heiethraughout
has been entirely selflnterested, it has paid no regard to the
peculiar political and social conditions of the country and
its rulers, and by bribing quite inadequately effete Sultans
to impose unpalatable measures which benefitted noone but
ourselves, and premltting them to misrule without protest, has
done more to alienate the interior, and to make the local
government incapable of improving the situation, than allX the
rest put together.
The result was that when I came here the
♦ into debt at the rate of two lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees a
ugovernment was getting into ■xeoi. ax,
year, they had not a single soldier and not a man upon whom