'Muscat-Omani relations' [‎27r] (61/412)

Letter dated I^t Sii&ban 1351 ( 30/11/32) i'roin Sixeiidri I8& bin
H h t O • *1- ' 8 G 01 i S l-l 1 j 3 C fiL t •
■rt,» ^ «
On the night of 20th Aujab ( evening ox 19/11/32) I received
your ebteemed letter of 2at]ri October i.vhich as in answer to my
letter of 11 tlx Jam&di II { x2/l0/32) sent xrcm Muawil imorining
me of your coi.jaunication to the Ituscat ffovei-niLent ana the re^ly
received from them. The re^ly is not satisfactory because the
(British) Government had arranged Uiat a tax of 5 dollars should
be coxlected in «.il ^orts on a xJO dollars and not on loads.
There is nothing special about importation of Oi.ja.ni ^oods at 3ur
and other places. This tax lias ,recently been ^evied b^ the
Customs Official at iiur and I nave already iuiormed you when it
was started. You ha.e pointed out t^at ^ 1% are collected on
each load. That means that they have collected more than what
was arranged because the number of loads in each Bahar defends
upon the strength and weakness of camels, sometimes tiiere are
6 and sometimes 7 or 8 loads in a Bahar. As to the Bisr aates
some of them are of no va^ue sur.d some of them are sold atl loss.
The best Bisr u&tes were sold this yt ar at ^ 16J x .er Baliar and
the inferior quality did not fetch any value. If this is the
condition it is not un lerstood why the tax is collected on loaas.
I await your favourable reply as the matter has been going on
for some time.
Secondly the V/alis of the Sultan are oppressing the people
{ of Oman) without any cauae. One of the T/alis is Saiyid Hamad,
¥feli of Iiatrah, to v .hom I wrote as I did not bant to bother you
but he did not jend me an answer. It is laid do.«n in the Treaty
that none ( of Ci^an subjects) should undergo any penalty unless •
his case is roved before the Shara. Ii there is anytnin^ due
from anyone I have to order him to x jay ax^d they ( Luscal Go/ern-
ment Oli'icials) iiave no autliority over them.
I v/ro te to the Consul at Bush ire as my messengers ..no brought
jry letters to you returned without aiiy reply and perhaps youi
reply was received after a month o_ iioie.