ملف ٤٥٣٥/ ١٩٢٨، الجزء ١٤، "الخليج الفارسي: السيطرة السياسية: ١. الاتصالات التلغرافية بين السلطات البريطانية في الخليج الفارسي. ٢. الشروط التي يمكن بموجبها للمقيم السياسي في الخليج الفارسي التواصل مع قائد القوات الجوية البريطانية في العراق." [و‎‎٩‎٥] (١٩٠/٨٩)

would toe willing to incur the expenditure involved.
4. The real point at issue seems to me to he the
fighting qualities of the Bani Bu Ali and the amount of
resistance they are in the last report prepared to put up.
I fully agree with the estimate submitted by Major Murphy
of the force required which has been prepared in
consultation with Captain Walker and Captain O'Connor,
who had himself recently visited Sur, if the situation is
considered from a purely military point of view and I
feel some diffidence in offering any alternative suggestion
because I have no personal knowledge of the Bani Bu Ali,
but I am inclined to doubt whether they would maintain a
recalcitrant attitude if some punishment was inflicted
upon them and they were shown that it was the determination
of the British Government to enforce the authority of the
Muscat State on the coast. I agree that action by a warship
alone would be entirely ?ineffective: past history has
shown this. Due notice is always given of the intention
to bombard, a fort or tower is knocked down after it has
been evacuated, and no one is any the worse. We have at
our disposal nowadays however another weapon, namely the
aeroplane. It has never been used yet in the Persian Gulf
except, of course, in the hinterland of Kuwait which is
far removed from Oman, a,nd the moral effect on the tribes
would be considerable. It is quite possible that the
presence of a flyingboat with a ship might prove insufficiat.
Sur, however, is only 94 miles from Muscat where the Royal
Air Force have a small base and there would not I think be
any difficulty in placing say a flight of Wapitis at Muscat
for, if necessary, a couple of months and they could bomb
Sur several times if necessary should the Bani Bu Ali
maintain their contumacious attitude. Under the
circumstances