Political relations: HM Political Resident, Bahrain

This file contains correspondence relating to:

• Planned visit of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf W H T Luce to Salalah to see the Sultan of Muscat and Oman Saeed Bin Taimur and the plan to inform him of the proposal to change the form of UK representation in the Sultanate, by appointing an ambassador (1-2)
• Agreement of the Sultan to this proposal (4)
• New proposal for the Political Resident to be accredited as Ambassador to the Sultanate and for the Consul General to become Resident Chargé d'Affaires (9)
• Question of whether the Political Resident's job should be separated from that of the Ambassador to Muscat (10)
• Unwillingness of the Sultan to accept the accreditation of the Political Resident as Ambassador to the Sultanate and the decision to continue with the existing arrangements for the time being (11)
• Question of whether the issue of the form of representation in Muscat should again be raised when the new Political Resident R S Crawford meets with the Sultan. It also contains a summary of the meeting between Crawford and the Sultan and in particular the declaration of enmity made against the Sultan by Sayyed Tariq Bin Taimur (12)
• Brief on Muscat and Oman prepared for the Minister of State in advance of his address to the Bristol University Labour Club (13)
• Decision to leave the existing arrangements in the Sultanate as they are and to reappraise the situation once the Sultan has begun to receive oil revenue and has initiated development plans (14)