"ملف 7/4 شؤون الطيران وسلاح الجوّ" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٢] (٥٠٦/٣٣٢)

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Buss and I looked incredulously at each other, and Hassan's
ce was a s u y, till Buss said * what did you mean to say *
You TilTllt^Tft l e v t0 explain th t he had the opposite.
You will notice that Hassan was not eating with us. Had I
been alon^ he would have.
^ry disturbed teat we should hear
«nH t 0 ' P ro P^ an ^ a they dish up in Bahrain,
and ere particularly nervous of my Interpreter Sayyid Abdur
Rezzaq. They were not pleased that we should hear the masons
working on the petrol store grumble that they had not been
paid ior tnree weeks, and anybody who might conceivable say
anything interesting was kept well away,
, ^ ^ ^ound Shaikh Shakhboot thoroughly sulky when we
arrived t Abu Phabi, but after an hours talk he became his
usual cheerfu]. self. Then I went for a walk on the beach, and
the flying boat moved, without warning, round to the lagoon
a mile away to be out of the wind. I came back and found him
and his uncle sitting on the beach glowering, and muttering that
the plane would be shot up by bedu and that they would be held
responsible. Next day, had I had time, something might have
been done but I could not get him away from his rela-tives.
It is hopele b trying to do anything in these flying visits,
they only unsettle the people and do no good at all. What is
wanted is a stay of at least two days, and to go out hawking
with him or shooting, and then after suitably insulting him
with a rifle or other useful gift, there is some hope of get
ting him to do what one wants. Also one has to find out which
relatives^count and talk them over, and it all takes time. If
we try and force him him in this instance we hall make a great
mistake, and anynpoints that we lose in the game will be thank
fully collected by our ally Bin Baud. He is a menace and noth
ing else to o r power on tJie Trucial Coast.
7. hy we stopped at Hamriyah I could not discover,
for there is no lagoon and it is useless for the . though
the Shaikh is very firnedly. Howe has no iclea what a nuisance
the flying boats are to everyone, and thought our arrival would
be a treat for the Shaikh. He was away paying a call at Dibai.
I persuaded them not to stop the night at Um-el-Q,aiwain, as the
Shaikhs would hav« sat up half the night wondering whether they
should sen«" us guards or feed us or what we wanted. I do not
consider that the Truciaal Coast is yet in a condition when hap
hazard cruising by the R^A*'FJ is likely to be useful, or in
fact anyh|ting but what it is how, a potenti 1 danger.
8. The night at Sir Abu Nair was uneventful, but next
morning both Howe and Fullard asked me if it would be all righgh
to bathe, and I told them that they could not bathe in front o f
the fishermen naked. We went to the other side of the spit
here there was cover, but after the bathe Fullard felt he need
ed exercise and ran a quarter of a mile along the beach in his
bit^hday kit. The fishermen must have thought him mad.
At Q.atar th- difficulties of paying political visits
from a plane reached their climax. . The fat son Hamdd came off
to see me, and as there was no place outside I asked him in.
Coming i^he stuck in the pilots seat, and X thought to help him
by pulling his leg, and Abdul Rezzaq by pressing on his head-
but he was trying all the time to get out/ However, he got in
at last, and promptly lent back against some oily wires. One
of the crew was preparing lunch and I sudrenly thought thalf t, "ohe
c^f^fei^e^rew-must have been affected by the water at Sir Abu Nair
and looked hastily round, and found that the dreadful smell
issued from a tin of Brussel sprouts he had just opened. The
Shaikh broke out into a profuse sweat, and I hastily said that
I thought I should like to come and s e the forst. We got him
out with some difficulty and he left for the shore. Later
when returning his c 11 I asked him if e would like a short
flight and he excused himself.
9. The fact is that on these trips one feels that one
is leading a peck of children about, who may produce any kind
of embarrasment at a minute's notice. As a conveyance for