'File No: E.7. Qatar & Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1913' [‎96r] (208/460)

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indopandent anqulrlea which I instituted in Doha and A1 tflda
I am inolined to heliova his version of the affair.
4. We then proceeded to diaouaa the question of the
Turkiah Fort. Shaikh Abdulla inforned me that there were
two Officora and forty men with two fi^ld tfuna and one
mountain gun in the Kort. l^ntrenchments could he seen round
the tort, the e placement of the mountain pvn could he
easily distinguished, and also two objects which we tooV
to he the eraplacements of the two field funs. All of these
in the entrenched line.
I requested Shaikh Abdullah||bo place the following al
ternatives before the Turkish Commandant!-
(a) That he should surrender, wh^n the Officers would be
allowed to retain their swords and be treated as indicated
in your letter sent bp Abdul Jubbar Kffondi.
(b) That he should vacate the fort leaving the run^intf.ct
in which case I would hand the Fort over to nhalkh Abdullatt,
on the latter^ agreeing to look after the Turks, I insisted
on an answer by 7 a .m. the next mominp and Shaikh Abdullah
eventually agreed to settle the matter during the nipht,
though he was vary anxious to bo p:iven ten days for the
negotiations.
I promised him 5,000/- if he arranged the surrender of
the Fort without a hitch and gave ^to understand that if he
failed the Kort could ho taken by ihipa. T may add
that the Jhaikh was under the impression that "Oalnoi'i ie w
was a transport.
5. On the morning of the 550th I landed with (commandor
Viscount Kelburn. On learning from ShalVh Abdullah that
the Turks had fled in the night we proceeded to the l (> ort
which waa first occupied by a landing party and searched,
formally handed over to Shaikh Abdullah.
and then
Besides the three guns in the trenches there were 14
rifl^e, about 8,000 rounds of amm:nition, 500 projectiles,
some casks of black powder, tents, great coats and odds
and ends of stores in the Kort. Three old mu^sle loaders
had