"15/7 جزر حوار" [و‎‎٣‎٥] (٥٤٠/٧٤)

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no need ior itj and that he relied on the justice ot' His
Majesty f s CrOYernment. Tue reierence to evidence, however, had
evidently caused hira scale concern, as he demanded the ri^ht
to see t f he Bahrain Governments counter-claim, M in order to
enable him to rebut it”. I replied that I was unable to give
him an assurance that His. Majesty f s Government would agree to
any such procedure, and that in my own opinion it was impossible
to contemplate a procedure enabling each party in turn to
traverse the arguments, comiter-arguments, rebuttal, counter
rebuttal and so on of the other, since this would render a
decision impossible in his life-time or in mine. In my view it
was sufficient for His iiajesty T s Government to have before
them the claims of the two parties supported by the evidence
on which they relied. These, with the information His Majesty’s
Government themselves possessed, would be adequate for a just
and proper decision to be reached.
3* \ I then turned to the request made in the Shaikh’s
second letter that(in effect)the Bahrain Government should be
ordered to evacuate the Hawar Islands pending a decision of tne
dispute. I explained that the Bahrain Government are now,and
have been to my personal knowledge for many months past, in
actual occupation of the islands. I could offer him no hope
that His Majesty’s Government would disturb the status quo
while his claim was unuer consideration; it was common practice
that when a person laid claimjf to property in the actual
physical occupation of a second party, that party was left in
possession until the new claimant had established his right
before a tribunal. This would be the position in Hawar, and it
was for him to ensure that none of his subjects caused
disturbance by an attempt to upset it. I stated that I had
heard rumours (which 1 could not believe; that his son Bhaikh
Hamad contemplated an ar^ed raid on Hawar. This^botn of them
denied hotly, but my reference to a very vague and unsubstantial
rumour was deliberate since the Shaikh, his family and his