Organisation of the Muscat and Oman Field Force (Huqf Force): supply of arms and equipment; recruitment of British officers

This file contains correspondence relating to:

• Supply of equipment and training for the new Muscat and Oman Field Force (the Huqf Force) (1)
• List of arms and equipment for the expansion of the Field Force. It also contains a comment on the three sections of the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF): The Muscat Infantry, the Batinah Force, and the Muscat and Oman Field Force (2)
• Delivery of arms to Muscat, and the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Saeed Bin Taimur's plans for the next moves in Oman. This includes plans to engineer an invitation to send troops into Adam, near Nizwa (3)
• British loan to provide arms and equipment for the 400 additional soldiers the Sultan wants to raise and the creation of the new Dhofar Force (4-5)
• Candidates for the British officer vacancies, to replace the Adenese officers, with the Field Force. Candidates include a former Lieutenant of the Royal Artillery I G Shaw (No. 391429) (6-7, 11)
• Payment arrangements for new equipment, advice that the Sultan should not add all the new men to the Field Force, the situation in central Oman and Dhofar and the interests of the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) (8-9)
• Middle East Land Force's requirement for supplies to be checked on delivery, to prevent political difficulties caused by defective equipment (10)
• Planned organisation of the SAF to make use of its new equipment (12)
• Suggestion that serving British regular officers should be seconded to the Field Force because of its expansion and the weakness of officering in the force. It considers the practicalities, and includes a suggestion that it be merged with the Trucial Oman Levies to create an Arabian Regiment (13, 17, 20)
• Brigadier J E A Baird's recommendations for the Field Force, which must be shown to the Sultan for approval (14)
• Concerns that unrest among the troops and dissatisfaction among officers over living conditions may produce serious consequences, politically as well as practically (15)
• List of British officers serving with the SAF (16, 18)
• Message to the Sultan reporting unrest among troops at Nafun (19)
• Causes of discontent in the Field Force and the Sultan's response (21-22)
• IPC's objection to paying more money in order to quell the unrest in the Field Force (23)
• Present state of recruitment and training for the Field Force (24-25)
• Suggestion that basic pay be increased and that rations, administration, etc. be improved (26-27)
• Baird's report on his visit to Muscat from 10-13 July 1955. He discusses issues including: gun running; the political situation in Dhank; the mutiny at Nafun; the Field Force expansion programme; and the general question of British officials in the Sultan's service (28)
• 'Report on a disturbance at Nafun on 7 July 1955' by Lieutenant Colonel W A Cheeseman, Commander of the Muscat and Oman Field Force (29)
• Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan emphasising the need for better quality British officers in the SAF (30)
• Baird's report on his visit to Ibri from 24-25 July 1955. The appendices include: a table of pay rates for the Trucial Oman Levies and the Muscat and Oman Field Force; and ration scales (31)