Coll 20/36 'Muscat: Proposal (by a Mr C. S. J. Collier) to institute a State Post Office in Muscat' [‎11r] (23/62)

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by collectors. It may also not be out of place to state that when I
visited the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. before leaving London for the East, the offi
cial to whom I spoke made no adverse comment* on my .project for Muscat
and seemed even to welcome it as promising some new revenue to a small
and by no means affluent State. He informed me however that only in
India could the merits of the project be usefully judged.
question, in India I am known to a slight extent to the Department for
External Affairs and to the Finance Department, whilst in Lonaon I am
better known to the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the Foreign Office and the Treasury
(for a time I had active dealings with the Royal Mint). By original
profession I am a Scots Chartered Accountant, but for many* years, until
the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, I was Governor of the State bank of
that country. It is since 19?6, when I was forcibly deprived of my post,
that- I have been established in London, where my office is now at Carlton
Hous , lid Regent Street S.W.l. I have the honour to be a C.M.G. (Foreign
Office Honours List 19'?)
ness in silver currency (the Maria J-heresa thaler) for Arabia, and in
this I have been in relationship with the great bullion firms in London. _
The connection is still not wholly broken, but is necessarily in abeyance
until better times. It was this silver currency which brought me into
contact with Muscat, and I had the op -ortunity of being received by the
Sultan in London in 19~8. The stamp project was then originally touched
on and His Highness proposrd to approach the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. on the sub-
ject. I am ignorant as to what supervened and my visit to Muscat in ^
February last was Truitless. It is obvious however that, giv°n the appro-g
val the Government ob India, the Sultan would welcome the introduction [1
of his own stamps, if only for the financial benefit they would bring to ■
his Government.
Should it be desired, I am prepared to submit a detailed com
prehensive relation of the project in question. jj
I am now about to visit Kabul on business. The above address
in Peshawar will however continue to find me.
As having some faint relationship to the question of postage
otaraps, I venture to mention that Muscat has a currency of its own.
although the system functions badly and brings much perplexity to the
local authority. Indian rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. also circulate however and there could
be no question of having postage stamps in any other money.
In regard to my personal capacities, should these come into
I had the good fortune to be the originator of the English busi-
I have the honour to be.
with great respect,
Your Excellency’s most obedient Servant,
Sgd. C.S.Collier