About this Item
Original b/w illustrated wraps 21x21cm. Designed and published by Michael Rice and Company, London, for the Ministry of Information and Tourism, printed by Battley Brothers, London. 30pp illustrated with many b/w photos and maps, including royal portrait to the front. Very good. Rare, with Worldcat and Library Hub locating only 7 (SOAS, Exeter, Durham, Oxford, Maison Sci. Homme, West Virgnia, Ohio State). Undated, but numerous text references indicate during 1974. This appears to have been issued to show to an international audience the rapid and wide reaching successes of the new Sultan in integrating and developing what was a highly backward part of his country. It presents a description of Dhofar, and the "daunting" challenges Sultan Qaboos found upon assuming power in 1970, including a stagnant economy, ineffective administration, lack of authority, depopulation, and a people "poor, dispirited and mostly out of work". It describes 4 years of progress with respect to: the military situation (with photos of local militia and captured Communist weapons); Rural Development Programme ("As the rebels are cleared from an area a Civil Action Team moves in to drill for water and to set up a small school, clinic and a store"); medical services (completing the hospital in Salalah with a new one due in late 1974); education (expanding facilities and opening new schools including the first for girls); the first tarmac roads and new developments; new and expanded telecoms; electricity; extensive water projects; cattle and agriculture; a new Fisheries Department and financing for fishermen; the new harbour at Port Raysut; upgrading Salalah military airstrip into a civil airport; housing; plans for a new town centre at Salalah; and launch of Dhofar Radio, the first station in Salalah. "The prospects for a revival of prosperity in Dhofar - possibly unknown since the days of the frankincense trade - are no longer just a dream, they are a positive and undeniable reality" (p7). The maps show the Sultanate (highlighting major infrastructure and oil developments), and Coastal Dhofar (Govt Centres, Govt Centres with Civil Action Teams, surfaced roads, graded roads, graded tracks). Seller Inventory # 5068
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