Finance for the Dhofar War.
Who paid ? |
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In March
1972 the Chiefs of Staff Committee met to consider the
"Future United Kingdom Defence Activity in Oman"
In ANNEX A TO COS 37/72 in paragraph 32 they put down
their thoughts about the finance of the war in Dhofar |
- The sultan was to pay
the full cost of personnel on loan to SAF and SOAF
- The assistance from
the FST and SAS had been provided since September
1970 on an lower extra cost basis from the
Government of Oman. The reasoning behind this being
that it was to be a short term commitment which "had
special training value for the services and which
would contribute to stability in the Gulf area
during the difficult period of our withdrawal from
Bahrein and Sharjah"
- The lower rate would
continue until June 1972 even though the
circumstances which justified it now no longer
existed.
- No charge would be
made following the changes as this might be thought
to be unreasonable.
- In the future a full
cost basis would be used for direct assistance but a
bit of "horse trading "was considered "if some
identifiable return could be established, e.g. in
the context of a quid pro quo for abandoning our
current commitments for the defence of Salalah
airfield."
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| It was all very well for
the Chiefs of Staff to try and extricate money from the
Sultan in order to protect British interests in the area
but the question that needed addressing was "Did the
Sultan have sufficient funds ?" They might be his own
funds or funds from friendly neighbours. The Jordanians,
Iranians and the Saudis interests would be best served
from suppressing the rebellion in Dhofar. |
Oman relied
upon its income mainly from its oil reserves which were
not large compared with those of her neighbours to the
north in Saudi, the Gulf States and Iran.
Production of oil was still relatively low and very
little LNG was exported. There had also been precious
little rise in the price of crude oil for many years.
That was about to change but this was not apparent in
1972.
The blue line on the graph shows the nominal oil price
and the yellow the $(2008) price. |
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| The bottom line was that
the Sultanate had a war to pursue, both in its interest
and in the UKs interest, were it to survive and there
were not the funds to do it. Yet. |
| The Defence Secretary was
very keen that the Sultanate be supported and that the
least embarrassing way of providing assistance would be
to "waive any forthcoming bill for the SAS and their
activities". The Treasury took a different view and were
not really too keen on supporting the Sultan as from
their perspective it was not good value for money and
would not give any measurable return. However should it
go ahead there were methods of keeping it out of the
public gaze by avoiding Parliamentary scrutiny. |
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| On the 21st August 1972
the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's wrote to the
Permanent Secretary in the FCO |
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| On the 22nd of August
1972 the Sultan meets Mr Heath |
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| The 19th of September
sees the details of the expenses waiver |
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| The Documents above are
from the
PRO at Kew and are reproduced under the OGL conditions.
relating to Crown Copyright |
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| The
reality of what was going on at inter-Government level
only cascaded down to the men on the ground with a few
modifications. I did enquire of a
former SAF Officer what the arrangements had been for
the payment for seconded British and other forces and
received the reply below late in March 2009 |
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I'm
almost certain that all British troops deployed to Oman
(at least from 1970 onwards) either as units (SAS / FST
/ Sapper Sqn / Cracker Bty* etc, etc) or as loan service
individuals to SAF and then subsequently to the three
services, were paid for by Oman.
I recall
some hard talking in the 1980s by the Head of Resources
under Gen Tim Creasey when Tim was the boss, at the
MODUK who were charging some unbelievable sum for loan
service RAF pilots, who were flying as much in an 18
month tour with SOAF as they would get in about 10
years in UK / Germany.
Individuals
on contract were of course paid for by Oman.
Iran paid
for its Brigade, and I think Jordan paid for its
Sapper Sqn and Special Forces Bn. Jordan donated
a Sqn of Hunter aircraft in 1975. Oman paid the
Indian government for its medical and naval staff on
loan to Oman
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Walter Ladwig III provides more
details in his
paper on counterinsurgency found elsewhere on this
website
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* 25pdr Ammunition was charged to the Sultanate
at £20 per shell |
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