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Nicholas Stanley-Price

(Fig. 5)
General Archibald Wavell (left), Superintendent Clive Adams (centre) and unidentified
officer in the courtyard. Guest rooms and roof sitting-area behind (photo: Adams, 1940-41).

The charges complained of by Weightman were thirty shillings a night, i.e. one-and-
a-half pounds sterling, or just under Rs. 20 in local currency. By way of comparison,
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Howes as the new Political Officer in Sharjah had an annual housing allowance of
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Rs. 100 per annum. Under the terms negotiated with Marais, if he were excused the
accommodation charge, Weightman’s meal cost per day would total Rs 6-5-0, i.e. less
than a third of what he had been charged.

Three years later the Political Officer, Trucial Coast, Captain M.P.O’C. Tandy, spent a
week in the Rest House after catching malaria. He could not be treated in the Agency
house but the RAF, whose doctor attended him, installed him in a room of the Rest
House – they kept several rooms there in reserve for hospital cases. The bill that the
Agency in Bahrain paid BOAC for Tandy’s stay quoted an all-inclusive charge of
Rs 10-0-0 a day for both accommodation and meals, a reduced rate for diplomatic
personnel similar to that agreed with Weightman.
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When the war was over and International Aeradio Limited (IAL) took over
management of the airfield from BOAC, prices were increased. In 1949 the nightly
rate for accommodation (presumably full-board) in the IAL Rest House at Sharjah
was Rs 25/- (i.e. a little under two pounds sterling, compared with the thirty shillings
rate in 1940). The Foreign Office in London accordingly increased from 25 shillings

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