'File 35/134 III (A 54) Sur: Ja`alan- Amirs of.' [‎100r] (217/426)

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dollars oust orris dues rrom the Ban! Bu All and a fine of
4000 dollars from the Jennebeh shows what the State are
capable of doing with their own forces, and provided they
maintain an adequate levy force. Frankly, however, 1 have
never quite understood what the difficulty was about maintain
ing more stringent customs control at Sur. The large
majority of the Sur dhows belong to the Jennebeh and only a
ainr.ll number to the Bani Bu All. These dhows come into the
Sur creek and once in there are under the control of the
Muscat authorities. If the askaris about whom we have heard
a good deal lately are incapable of dealing with the situation
could they not be stiffened, if necessary, with a detachment
from the levies? These dhows are hauled up on the beach
for overhaul during the monsoon and there seems to be no
particular difficulty in preventing them being put into the
water if necessary, if they are suspected of not having paid
customs dues, etc# In any case it seems to me that you have
got the dhows before they are ever put out to sea and there
is no necessity of waiting till they have been taken out of
the creek before stopping them. if any dhows fraudulently
land goods at Aiqa they are bound to come into the Sur creek
sooner or later and could then be seized# Tou say tnere are
12 dhows belonging to the Bani Bu Ali; I was told that the
number of large, dhows in their possession was less# However
this may be, the smuggling into Aiqa in Aiqa dhows is probably
not on a very large scale and I should have thought that it
would be possible to devise some method oi getting hole, of
these dhows too# It seems quite probaule that they are
hauled up on the iiur side of the creek for overhaul. However,
let uh in the first instance, at any rate, get away from this