"ملف XXXVIII/٥ تقرير عن صور بقلم الرائد ج. ب. ميرفي.، المساعد الهندي، الوكيل السياسي، مسقط. ١٠-١٠-١٩٢٨". [ظ‎‎٨] (٣٠٨/٢٧)

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horses. The Wall’s Askaris are believed to have had a hand in it m
conjunction with the Baui Bu Ali. bliey have been replaced by others from
Muscat. The Wall’s telephone line from his residence to the customs is also
being cut constantl} r .
94a. About this time a party of the Meshaikh tribe (a small tribe of
Bedouins and robbers, originally allied to the Beni Bu Hassan, but now
stated to be under the protection cf the Bani Bu Ali) stationed themselves on
the road outside Muqrimatain and looted all people coming into Sur for
some days. They killed a number of donkeys.
95. On the 18th September a shop belonging to a British subject—
Motimul Sukkumul—was broken into at noon by two men, an Arab and
a slave, whilst the owner was upstairs. The robbers ran away on seeing the
owner coming down, taking with them $188 in cash and ornaments worth
$95 ; whilst running away they dropped $45 worth of ornaments, which were
recovered.
96. Mahomed bin Naser of the Bani Bu Ali removed the flagstaff from
his house at Aiqa and erected a new flagstaff on ground level. On the
21st September Abdulla bin Saleh, mentioned above, hoisted Ibn Sand s
flag on the newly erected flagstaff. A salute of three guns was fired when
the flag was hoisted and one gun when it was lowered in the evening.
This appears to be a parallel to the action of Saiyid Fadhl bin Alawi
Moplah at Dhofar in 1875, when the latter styled himself as Governor of
Dhofar under the Ottoman Porte (see Lorimer, Vol. I, p. 591).
97. On the 21st September a caravan from Budiyah (Imam’s territory),
which had brought dry dates for Khimji Ramdas and obtained advances for
a further supply, was returning to Budiyah laden with rice. It was seized
by a party of Fuwaris under one Said bin Abdulla, who was the leader of the
party who looted Khimji Ramdas’s boat on the 21st August. Naser bin Ali,
Khimji Ramdas’s landlord, succeeded in intercepting them before they had
reached Jebel El Fed and recovered the caravan without loss. Said went
to the Wali and threatened him that if the Council did not release the
man whom they had arrested at Muscat in connection with the looting of
the buggalow, he would commit further mischief.
98. On the 26th September Mahomed bin Naser wrote to the Wali of
Sur not to allow caravans to come to Sur from Budiyah with dates. The
Wali refused to comply. He also wrote to the Political Agent stating that
his truce with the Hijriyin had been broken and asking him to warn British
subjects not to deal with the Hijriyin of Budiyah. He was asked not to
interfere with the legitimate trade of British subjects.
It would seem from the above that the gang of Fuwaris Avere acting in
conjunction Avith Mahomed bin Naser in stopping the Budiyah caravan.
99. It is believed that this action of the Amir is in order to induce
caravans to proceed to his new customs at Aiqa instead of Muqrimatain.
He has also attempted to induce British merchants to transfer themselves to
Aiqa, offering to charge 2|- per cent, instead of 5 per cent, as charged by the
Muscat authorities.
100. There has been trouble also with regard to a Chinaman who went
to Sur via Aden and Muscat. He bought a large quantity of fish and fins
and refused to pay the export duty on the grounds that he had already paid
it to the Amirs. On the 16th September Abdulla bin Saleh wrote to the
customs Mudir, stating that the Chinaman was under the protection of the
Amirs, that his goods should be shipped to any place he desires, and that
the Government had no right to recover any duty in any places under the
rule of the Amirs.
101. On the 30th September the Director of Customs at Muscat received
information from Sur that the Amirs had ordered their man in charge of
customs at Aiqa to count the sailing vessels entering Jerama and Sur creeks
as they intended to charge anchorage fee. They intended also to register
boats at Aiqa in the name of the Amirs.
The levy of such dues at Khor Jerama would appear to be a revival of
the dispute in 1877-80, Avhen the people of Ras el Hadd attempted to levy