Page 75 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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both filling a real need for the country and deriving satis­

faction from their jobs. Victims of Muscat government jealousy

and bureaucratic inefficiency, their activities were being

increasingly circumscribed. The mission school, run by Miss

Martha Holtz of the Danish Missionary Society, still had some

fifty students enrolled and the Mission bookshop, also staffed

by the Danish Missionary Society reportedly had a turnover of

some 2,500 Omani Riyals per month and was still the only

bookshop in town. But by far the greatest emphasis of the

! mission’s work was in the medical sector where eight of the

fourteen missionaries assigned to Muscat were working. But

although the Mission’s medical work was greatly needed by

Oman, the hospital’s future was increasingly uncertain under

the new compromise arrangement. Hindered by Oman government

jealousy and inefficiency in providing supplies, the hospital

was overburdened by the increasing work load and yet poorly

financed and primarily manned by older missionaries who had

come out of retirement to help boost up the Mission effort

in Oman. Even if the government had not ordered the dispersal
■
of the missionaries the following year, it is uncertain if

the hospital could have continued much longer, inadequately
i
supplied and hemmed in as it was by apathy and indifference
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from the Vest and increasing hostility from the Oman government.

Several months after his visit to Muscat, the author
.
had the occasion to visit Kuwait and stay for several weeks

with the Scudders in the old mission compound. The hospitals

of course had been closed since March 1967. The Mylrea Memorial

old men’s hospital was now being used by the police and the
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