Page 166 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

154 Records of Bahrain

Urgent.
Confidential. Political Agency,
Bahrain,
Np.C/R-26. 10th January, 1950.

Dear Sir Rupert,
The correspondence on the Sitrah pier/Zubarah question
has become so fast and furious that It Is difficult to givo
it considered treatment, but nevertheless at the risk of not
doing -so I think it better to forwurd to you Lermitte- s most
recent letter to me about his interview with the Shaikh which

I referred to in my letter No.C/R-25 of 9th January
2. The idea of the interview, as I understood from Dolgrave,
was.that the Shaikh.would wish to talk to Lermitto about the
Sitrah pier question. As you will see, what he did do was to
tie up with Zubarah. The trouble is that Lermitte (and
I suspect Longrigg) has been almost as disingenuous as tho
Shaikh. In his letter of the 7th January ho states "the
Zubarah(affair has nothing to do with the Company and on

every occasion that this subject has been raisod by H.H. no
opinions or suggestions have been given and the only reply
that has-been mode*was to tho effect that this wos a quostion
solely for ll.M.G. Yet in the 6nclosure ho writes
of his informing the Shaikh that he had conveyed his dosiro

.that the Zubarah question should be settlod to mo (in fact
.. all I can remember his doing is asking me whether the Zubarah
question could be settled - not mentioning that the Shaikh
had spoken to him .about it), Then, as reported in my letter
quoted above, ho went to the Foreign Office about Zubarah and
he recordod'hls telling the Shaikh that he had done so in
his first draft record of his interview, yet in the enclosure

. ho snys nothing about this, I think it is time those in-
consistencies in their uttitude bo pointed out fairly
forcibly ...
His Excellency
Sir Rupert Hay, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.,
Political Resident, Persian Gulf,
Bahrain.