Page 470 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

458 Records of Bahrain
British Agency
Confidential Doha
11/44/50
2nd.November 1950

Yesterday Abdulla Darwish came to me
to tell me about his difficulties in buying land or property
in Bahrain. He has connected this with the Zubara dispute.
2. His complaint is'not against the
Bahrain Govt, order that no foreigner may buy property from
anyone but another foreigner,but against an order that he says
forbids Qataris buying property from anyone in Bahrain,without
the express approval of the Ruler of Bahrain. He says this order
dates from the days of the Zubara dispute and should have been
rescinded when settlement was reached last year.
3. You will recall that the Ruler of Qatar
(your letter C/R-216 of 23rd. Apri 1 , parag rap.h 11) asked for
the restrictions imposed on Qatar to be removed.Your paragraph 12,
last sentence, gives the reply of the Ruler of Bahrain to this
request,Abdul 1 a Darwish is now arguing that because settlement was
reached all restrictions that were imposed should have been lifted.
This is not correct though it does seem unfair that Qataris should
have this restriction on their buying.In practice there are not
many Qataris who wish to buy property,and the case of Salih al
Mani is like a special one ,according to Darwish,because he has the
special permission of Shaikh Salman.
4.Abdulla's own case is as follows. Some time
ago.according to him,he bought some gardens near a property
belonging to Shaikh Salman.When it came to registering them the
Ruler said that he would haye liked to hear that they were for
sale so that he could have bought them,The result was that Darwish
did not buy the gardens but the Ruler did.I seem to recall hearing
this story before, but from the Bahrain Govt. end. It was different
in some respects:it was said to be Bahrain Govt, policy to prevent
Abdulla Darwish buying property in Bahrain,and in this particular
case Shaikh Salman was asked by Belgrave to buy the gardens so that
Darwish could not.I feel that this is probably nearer the truth,and
Darwish may also suspect this.
5.Abdulla Darwish claims that he is a great
friend of Shaikh Salman(I doubt this),and we know that his boast
that the Ruler of Qatar will do anything for him is justified,so
when Abdulla told me that he proposed asking the Ruler of Qatar
to write to the Ruler of Bahrain asking him to allow Abdulla to buy
some property that he now wishes to buy,I told him that I wanted
first to find out about the restrictions on buying by Qataris.He
has agreed to wait until I have done so and until I have given him
my advice. Abdulla says that he has a letter from Belgrave saying
that Qataris may not buy property in Bahrain without the permission of
Shaikh Salman,and if Belgrave wants to stop Darwish buying property there
it may cause some embarrassment if the Ruler of Qatar writes to the
Ruler of Bahrain,particularly if the Zubara dispute is brought into
the matter.
6.Without knowing whether all that Abdulla
Darwish has said is true,I think the first thing to do is to find
out what restrictions are imposed on Qataris and not on other foreigners.
If there is a good reason for any descrimination we can then explain it,
if there is not it will be more difficult.If there is no discrimin­
ation and it is a simple anti-Darwish move,then I do not see how we
can object to the Ruler of Qatar writing on h1s behalf,but I shall
be glad if I can be in a position to refute the argument that this
is nothing to do with the Zuabar affair.
7.1 shall be grateful,for your instructions.