"ملف ١/١٢ ‎III شركة اللاسلكي والبرق المحدودة" [و‎‎٦‎٦] (١٥٦/١٣١)

OVaRiteAo T^COi«JNICATIONS DEPARTMENT,
HEADQUARTERS BUILDING GENERAL POST OFFICE,
»T. BdARTIN'S LE GRAND LONDON, E, C, I.
P.O. Ref: 14993/ 38/29
9th November, 1949#
W.S073
Dear Mb. Spinney,
With reference to the despatch of the I4th June
form the Political Resident of the Persian Gulf about
Cable and Wireless Ltd's draft concessions to operate in
Muscat, and to our relative letter to Mr. Lansbury of
Cable and Wireless Ltd., copies of which were sent to
you and Mr. Burrows, the Company have now advised us of
the up to date position of the negotiations in connections
with the concession.
To recapitulate the events of the last two years,
when the question of the installation by the Company of a
public automatic telephone system in Miscat arose in 1947
the Company were then in possession of (i) a brief form
of license(as compared by the Sultan) to land and operate
cables at Muscat for the period 1st January 1939 - 31st
December 1987, and (ii) correspondence between the Sultan
and the Political Agent, Muscat, under which the Company
were permitted to install a wireless set at Muscat for
emergency purposes only. At this point the Company thought
it would be desirable to seek a comprehensive telecommuni
cations license ( similar to the license granted by the
Shaikh of Bahrain) covering the cable landing, the wire
less station and the telephone system. A comprehensive
draft license was therefore prepared by the Company in
consultation with the Political Resident via the Common
wealth Relations Office, and the draft was sent to the
Company's representatives in the Persian Gulf in July
1948 for negotiation with the Sultan. The document was
so set out that it could be used with or without the
inclusion of Gwarur in the light of any advice the Company
might receive from the Commonwealth Relation Office about
the Political situation relative to Gwadur. Because;
hov/ever, of the Sultan's or his Adviser's, absences from
Muscat the Company's representative was unable to make
any positive progress in the matter of the draft license,
but in June of this year he received from the Sultan's
Foreign Minister drafts of Wireless I'ele phone and Telegraph
License and a Mi sc at-Mat tr ah Telephone linense r, made out
in a form agreeable to the Sultan’* with a intimation that
the Sultan wished to retain the original cable landing
license of 1939. The draft of the Wireless license
obliges the Company to have stations capable of communi
cating with Muscat installed and working at Salafa h and
Gwadur within a period of three years.
The Company are quite agreeable not to proceed
further in endeavouring to obtain a comprehensive license
and they ha<sre asked their Divisional ftoager to negoiate
direct with the Sultan on the individual licenses and to
obtain his agreement to the omission of reference to Gwadur
I * and if possible Salalah fcom the draft Wireless license.
The Divisional Manager has also been instructed to keep in
touch with the Politiacl Agent on all matters concerning
the licenses. Do you wish to have a copy of the draft