Page 86 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

Bahrain and report the results. Once again we embarked in the two from Qatar was allowed to land in Bahrain. When Shaikh Hamed died,
launches and set off along the coast on our way back to Bahrain in the in 1942, I remembered the words which were attributed to Queen Mary
teeth of a very strong north-west wind. Tudor: ‘When I am dead . . . you shall find “Calais” lying on my heart,’
After going for some distance we anchored in the shelter of a shoal
but in this case the word would have been ‘Zabara’.
in fairly calm water so that we could have a meal. Quite a number of our South of Bahrain, close to the Qatar coast, was a group of about
people had binoculars and one or two ot them wore idly scanning the
a dozen islands. Some of them were very small but one of them was
shore. I heard startled exclamations. More field-glasses were hurriedly
eleven miles long; they were known as the Ha war islands, which was the
taken out of their cases and passed from hand to hand. From the other
name of the largest one. Bahrain had recently established its ownership
launch I saw, too, that people were gazing towards the shore. Some un- to them to the satisfaction of the British Government and we now pro­
usual activity had been sighted on the coast. Motor lorries, loaded with
ceeded to build a fort on the main island. It was on the high ground above
men, were moving in the direction of Zabara and bodies of men were the harbour, a building of the Beau Gcste style with a high watchtower
deploying. Then, as we watched, the fighting started. The Naim tribes­
in which there was a room which I used when I went to Hawar, an
men who lived at Zabara were being attacked by Shaikh Abdulla bin
enclosed courtyard, crenellated and loop-holed walls and a wire en­
Jasim’s Bedouin, those surly looking Bedouin who had been so much
tanglement around it. Qatar, of course, resented our possession of these
in evidence at the village of Ghariych. There was frantic excitement on
islands and for a long time we expected an attack there, but the efficiency
board the launches. Some of our men belonged to the Naim tribe and
of the fort was never put to the test.
had families at Zabara, they wanted to go and help their kinsmen. With
There were two small villages on the island inhabited by fishermen
difficulty we restrained them from jumping overboard. Between us and
and, as in the case of Bahrain, a hill in the centre. ‘Hawar’ means ‘a young
the shore there were dangerous shoals, and, even if we had been able to
camel’ and the island was given this name because it was like Bahrain in
to land, our small party could have done little good. It was an infuri­
miniature, Bahrain being regarded as the mother camel. The sea around
ating and humiliating position. There we were, close enough to see our these islands was full of fish and sawfish were very numerous. The shore
people being attacked, yet unable to do anything to help them and
near the villages was littered with the beaks of the sawfish, some of them
the gale was now blowing so strongly that we had to get out into the
three or four feet long, with, on each side of the central bone, a row of
open sea to avoid being wrecked on the reefs. We could do nothing but
hard, very sharp points which these fish use as a weapon. In retaliation
return to Bahrain.
for Bahrain having built a fort at Hawar, the Shaikh of Qatar built a fort
In the fighting which took place that day there were about a dozen
on the edge of the Zabara enclave which became the subject of com­
casualties on each side, but the Naim got the worst of the engagement and
plaints, arguments and negotiations which were still going on when I
were forced to surrender and to hand over most of their arms. Several of
the men who were killed were personal retainers of Shaikh Hamed’s; one left Bahrain.
Gradually, after a few years, some of the Bahrain Arabs returned to
of them was an old man whom I knew very well and was fond of. As soon
Zabara, and the situation drifted back to what it had been before the
as the Qatar force had withdrawn the whole of the Naim tribe with their
fighting. It was an uneasy modus vivendi and the existence of the fort
families, their flocks and their camels left Zabara and came to Bahrain,
which the Shaikh of Qatar had built at Zabara was a thorn in the flesh of
in a flotilla of boats which we sent for them. They were generously treated
by the Shaikh, and for many months one saw the unusual sight of black Bahrain. Soon the Bahrain Arabs at Zabara began again to complain
about the aggression of the Qatar Arabs and the Shaikh used to discuss
Bedouin tents on the high ground near Rafaa where the Naim were en­
with me, every time I saw him, for hours at a time, the question of his
camped. After some time they found that the grazing in Bahrain was
rights in Zabara and the unhelpful attitude of the British authorities from
insufficient for their animals and a part of them went over to Saudi
Arabia. This incident exacerbated the feeling between Bahrain and whom he could, never get a definite statement.
In "1949 new negotiations began between Bahrain and Qatar. There
Qatar and put an end to any hope of negotiating a settlement for many
were innumerable discussions and meetings in which I took part and
years to come. All intercourse with Qatar was terminated and nobody
156 finally, mainly owing to the efforts of the Political Agent, C..J. Pelly,
157