Coll 30/52(1) 'Persian Gulf. Diaries: Bahrain News and Intelligence Reports' [‎145r] (291/1077)

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to His Highness the Shaikh v/ith the object of extracting a
motor car or at least a thousand rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. each f rom him, are
now in full swing. Even Shaikh Hamad, generous as he is, is
getting extremely tired of these people and has besought my
assistance in putting them off. He regretfully declined my
suggestion that he might manage matters himself by return pre- ;
sents of equally vYorn-out camels to his visitors.
(iii) A fire occurred at No. 56 Well in the Bahrain Pet
roleum Company^ Oil Field on the 17th April. This is a new
M edge well” and a test had gust been made which resulted in a
good deal of oil lying about the rig. By the most extraordina
ry misfortune a spark from an engine just being started fired
the oil-soaked clothing of a cooly, and while he himself was
beirg extinguished in the mud-sump the fire spread to the der
rick floor. It was hov/ever extinguished quite quickly and no
serious damange was done.
h
48. Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. .
(i) Reference paragraph 29(i) of my Summary No. 5 of 1938.
The Shaikh of Abu Dhabi has had the impertinence to en- Mu
quire Collection of papers folded in half and stitched together to form a gathering of folios. why he has been deprived of the good offices of His Majes
ty's Government, and to enquire also what reasons we have for
stating that slave trading goes on through his territories. ||
Since the latter enquiry appeared to indicate the intention
more of suppressing informers than of slave traders, he has
received the reply that since he is the Shaikh he presumably
knows all that is going on in his Shaikhdom and that it is his
business to put a speedy end to slave traffic. jl[\
(ii) Shaikh Khalid, the Regent of Kalba, seems to be doing
fairly well for himself. One story, so far unconfirmed, is that
he has managed to assert authority over quite a considerable
stretch of Has al Khaimah territory in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. al Kaur. The
small Shaikh or Wali of South (independent) Diba also appears
to recognise Kalba as his suzerain. It is a pity that Shaikh
Khalid suffers so much from malarial 3
g
(iii) Intensive patrolling and dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. searching on the Tru
cial and Batineh Coasts by the three sloops now in the Gulf
have resulted in a crop of rumours. One of them, which has
been reproduced in a Baghdad nev/spaper (and v/hich I hope will
appeal to the sloops) is that an entire British fleet is now
in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Another, which is interesting as indicat
ing^ the present trend of thought on the Coast, is that the Abu
Dhabi andRas al Khaimah pearling fleets are to be seized.
49. Saudi Arabia .
(i) Reference paragraph 100 of Jeddah Report for March 1938.
15
The deepening of No. 2 Well at Dhamman proceeds slowly I 5
through hard rock formations. Meanwhile the* flow from No/? con
tinues undiminished, and everyone is very satisfied.
I °ft
The party of 16 persons to which reference is made in the
Jeddah Report is actually engaged on geophysical exploration by
the seismic method in the Abu Hadriyah direction (nowhere near
Qast as Salwa). The object of the seismic tests is to locate
li Kely subsunace structures where there are few surface expo
sures to assist. I understand that the California Arabian
Standard/-