Page 55 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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as compared with 1,500 operations and 160,000 treatments in
102
1953, just eleven years previousljr, an increase of 269$

and 69$ respectively. The Second V/orld War also added to the

growing hospital load and the Mission once again found itself

caring for numerous American and British soldiers, sailors and

airmen. Although no precise figures are available to indicate

how many servicemen were treated by the mission during this

period, the July-September 1945 quarterly report seems to

indicate that the number was at least several hundreds, and

the issue is full of letters of gratitude from the servicemen

and their families. 103
;
An interesting and unique development in the medical

work took place in Doha in 1945 when the Shaikh of Qatar I

requested that Dr. Storm, then on a medical tour of the

Trucial States, draw up some plans for a small local hospital.

Dr. Storm sat down that evening, by the light of a Coleman
lantern, and sketched the building out. The Shaikh then

called his own builder and issued orders for construction to

begin. Meanwhile, with a shopping list provided by Dr. Storm,

he sent to England for furniture and medical supplies, and,

within a year he was able to call the Storms back to take
104
charge of a fully equipped, modern hospital, The facility
..
was a small one, designed to handle twenty-one in-patients

and a daily outpatient load of no more than eighty, and the

Mission was not able to man it permanently, The event was

nonetheless significant in that it demonstrated initiative

on the part of an Arab ruler, not onl3r to encourage and