Coll 30/114 'Proceedings of H.M. Ships.' [‎418r] (835/1203)

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that he was bringing good news for him and when he came off to
call the following morning he was told that his personal salute
had been increased from 3 to 5 guns, which were fired when he
left the ship. I told the Shaikh that the Senior Naval Officer
was unavoidably detained at Bahrain and at the same time gave him
the Senior Naval Officer’s congratulatory message. The Shaikh
did not appear to register mudi pleasure when he heard ofthis
honour and outside observers thought the interview had fallen a
little flat* certainly the dignity of the proceedings was
interrupted by the Shaikh’s four year old son, who found that two
glasses of sherbet were straining his capacity.
ABU BHABI
11. We arrived at ABU DHABI from SHARJAH on the evening of
7th October but unfortunately the Shaikh had not returned from
Bahrain although this visit had been arranged some time previously.
12. Colonel Loch wished to see the Shaikh of ABU DHABI to
discuss the boundary question south-east of QATAR and if possible
embark a Representative from ABU DHABI who could go with Colonel
Loch in an aeroplane from DOHA to point out one or two villages
whose names appear on the map; it was also his intention to
bring up the matter of establishing aerialbeacons on HALUL and
DAS islands.
13. The Shaikh’s brother came off to call and Colonel Loch
returned the call later on, but he could not induce him to send
any representative of ABU DHABI in the ship without the Shaikh's
approval; so next morning we sailed for DOHA, anchoring to the
south-west of HALUL for the night*
DOHA. 10th - 11th October .
16. Before lunch Colonel Loch explained to the Squadron
Leader that the object of the visit was to obtain from the Shaikh
of ^ATAR a knowledgeable native and then emplane next morning,
and fly over the southern end of the QATAR peninsular with a view
to identifying certain villages and wells shown on the map.
The D/F stations at Bahrain and Sharjah had also been co-opted £o
aesist the VALENCIA in fixing her position.
1? . In the evening Colonel Loch visited the Shaikh and later ,
accompanied by three of the ship’s officers, had dinner with him.
During the visit Colonel Loch asked the Shaikh for a guide for
next day’s flight and two Bedouins were summoned by the Shaikh;
when these two men heard what was asked of them they retired to
consider the problem and then fled from (JATAR. Whether this was
due to the fear of flying in an aeroplane or to the possibility
of being mixed up in boundary questions relating to Saudi
Arabia is unknown.
Letter of Proceedings, 36 th - 31st October, 1935.
From The Commanding Officer, H.M.S. LUPIN
at Abu Dhabi.
No.6/A. # ^ 1st November 1935.
14. ABU MUSA . Two representatives of the Golden Valley
Ochre Company - fiommander (Retired) D.H. Rainier and Mr. Channon
( a mining engineer) - arrived at SHARJAH by Strick line from
England on 29th October; they proceeded to .ABU MUSA two days