"تقرير الإدارة عن المقيمية السياسية في الخليج الفارسي للأعوام ١٩١٥-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٨‎٢] (٣٩٦/٣٧١)

56 ANNUAL REPORT ON THE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL RESIDENCY
Omani fribes may remain as a hinterland—no man can control them—to fight
amongst themselves and through fear to refrain more, every year the Sultan's
administration improves, from their habitual raid on his territory.
At the end of 1918 the Government of India had sanctioned a loan of 5i
Hi, HigW Administration. lakIlS of ' 0 , t the S " lta n the
repayment or ms aebts, conditional oa the
reform of his administration in certain matters These conditions were the
appointment of trained customs officials nominated by us who would rocrganise
the customs and introduce a proper financial system into the State, the
institution of a proper Court for the administration of justice, the establishment
of a good school, and the enrolment and training of a levy corps for his own
protection.
After some correspondence at the beginning of the year under report
between His Highness and the Political Agent, His Highness accepted all the
conditions of the loan. Minor modifications were agreed to, namely that the
interest on the loan and the first quarterly instalment of principal would not
be payable till after a year. His Highness was to fix his own privy purse by
agreement with the Political Agent altera month's working of the new system.
Grwadur and Dhofar were expressly excluded from the control of the Director
of Customs
It was not till September of the year that the three Egyptian Customs
officials, whose services had been asked for to reorganise the Customs, anired.
An arduous task confronted them, as the whole system had to be completely
revolutionised if financial order was to be introduced. As has been explained
in previous reports, His Highness used the Customs as his bank, borrowing
money from merchants on the security of the Customs, the merchants in turn
recouping their principal and interest by short payment of iCustoms dues. In
other words, for a sum of money down, a skilful Hindu bannia was able to buy
the right of free import for ever. It is true that the Customs under Mahomed
Heimeo kept theoretical accounts of these transactions, but the appalling
abuses of the system need not be dilated upon, ,
The immediate steps taken were—
(1) The appointment of a committee to estimate the debts incurred by
His Highness on the security of the Customs, on the basis of
immediate payment.
(2) The abolition of all short payment of Customs dues.
(3) The institution of payment of duty at the current bazaar price
in dollars, not at the rupee price converted into dollars at the
pre-war rate, which meant a large increase in the rate of duty.
(4) The control of all income and expenditure in the Muscat and
Muttrah Customs by the Director of Customs.
The abolition of short payment of Customs dues naturally roused a storm
of protests from merchants complaining that their contracts had been broken.
The only remedy was the speedy ranking of the debts by the committee. This
was completed by lllh November, and it was found that the debts against the
Customs amounted to R4,59,259 while the Sultan had private debts of
111,96,906. This gave a total of 116,56,165 on the basis of immediate payment,
and this total was over a lakh less than the amount of the claims.
As it was clearly necessary for the Sultan to start with his reformed
administration unencumbered, sanction for an additional lakh of loan, giving
a total of 6^ lakhs, was asked for and granted. All debts were paid off in
cash or by supply bill on Bombay by 31st December.
The actual technical administration of the Customs was then taken in hand,
and a set of simple rules is being framed and will be published by His
Highness and made binding by Political Agent under King's Regulation. The
Customs is working well in spite of occasional friction between a too zealous
Customs official and a merchant who used to have matters all his own way.
The Director of Customs made several tours up and down the coast.
Control is almost impossible at the smaller ports but an effort was made to