Page 87 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

who undertook the very thankless role of Mediator between the two
cessantly about his enormous wealth and had a contempt for Arabs who
Shaikhs, an agreement was reached. \Vc all hoped that this would
were less slick chan himself. He had a wandering eye, there was something
terminate once and for all the Zabara dispute which had lasted for three
odd about the other eye, and he complacently assumed that his wealth
generations. In February 1951 the Shaikh of Qatar, Shaikh Ali bin
Abdulla, accepted an invitation to visit Bahrain. and his personal attractions, and the pearl necklaces which he gave as
presents, made him irresistible. When he was with Shaikh Ali he used to
Shaikh Ali had become Shaikh of Qatar in the previous year when
his aged father abdicated. His younger brother had originally been the reply to all the questions and remarks which were made to his master,
who seemed to acquiesce in this odd mode of conversation. With me he
Heir Apparent, but the younger brother died and the choice reverted to
adopted a hearty man-to-man style of conversation heavily interlarded
the older brother, who had been passed over in the first place. I think the
with fulsome compliments which he cannot have believed that I would
circumstances of his succession had some effect on his character. The visit
swallow. He wanted to buy land in Bahrain perhaps to prepare a retreat
went off better than I had expected though without much enthusiasm on
when the situation got too hot for him in Qatar, where he had many
cither side. There was a certain tendency among the Bahrain Arabs to
1 regard the visiting Qataris as ‘country cousins’, which even the Shaikh of enemies, but the Bahrain Shaikhs disliked him and he was prevented from
buying any property, which increased his enmity against the Khalifah.
Qatar must have noticed. Shaikh Ali was given a top V.I.P. reception, a
He often stayed in Manama in a house next door to mine. I always
mounted escort, Guards of Honour, a dinner at the palace at which there
knew when he was in town, for there would be rows of cars parked all
were 160 Arab guests, and visits to schools, hospitals, the Power House
down the street, for although he was unpopular in Bahrain there were
and the Refinery, but it was impossible to know whether any of these
people who paid court to him on account of his wealth and his influence
things interested him as he rarely spoke and his expression was entirely
in Qatar. An old Bahrain sea captain told me that he first knew ‘Bin
lacking in animation. The Shaikh did his best to keep up a conversation
Darwish’ when he was a servant on a diving dhow and used to massage men
with his guests but it was a one-sided effort. An Englishman, ex-R.A.F.,
when they got cramp. Abdulla Darwish was greatly disliked by the sons
who had recently been taken on as Adviser by the Shaikh of Qatar, was
of the Shaikh’s younger brother whose father, had he not died, would
staying with us during the visit, and the only times that I succeeded in
have been the Ruler of Qatar. A year or two ago this faction of the Ruling
drawing Shaikh Ali into what might be described as conversation was
Family showed their objection to Abdulla Darwish so unmistakably that
when he visited the Power House and turned the lever which started off
in spite of his many vested interests in the country he retired from Qatar,
a new engine. I tried to explain something about the engine, though I was
leaving his two brothers to deal with his affairs. He settled in Saudi
very ignorant about such things, and the Shaikh did say, ‘Tell my Adviser
Arabia where he is said to be prospering as well as he did in Qatar.
to buy one of these for me/ Again, when we visited the schools he said
Fortunately Abdulla Darwish is not a typical product of the oil age in the
to me, ‘I would like to have a dozen of your schoolteachers for Qatar/
Persian Gulf, although there are one or two people like him in some of
I replied, ‘I will enquire whether any of our teachers would like to be
the other states where riches came suddenly.
transferred to Qatar, Your Excellency/ When I asked them the reply was,
The improved relations between Bahrain and Qatar did not last. Not
as I had expected, ‘No/
long after the visit of Shaikh Ali to Bahrain there was more trouble at
One of the people who accompanied Shaikh Ali, for the Shaikh never
Zabara as Qatar failed to keep to the terms of the agreement which had
went anywhere without him, was Abdulla Darwish, who has been aptly
been made between the Shaikhs. Again there were complaints and then
described elsewhere as the Shaikh of Qatar’s eminence grise. He was a
protests to the British Government which produced either vague replies
Persian, of humble origin, who became a millionaire by acquiring
or none at all. When I left Bahrain in the spring of 1957 ‘The Zabara
complete ascendancy in Qatar. Nobody could open a shop, start a busi­
Qncstion’ was still the subject of long and acrimonious discussions
ness, take a contract or conduct any negotiations without the approval of
between the Shaikh and the British authorities, and any signs of a settle­
‘Bin Darwish’. He was a large, blustering, vulgar man, with blue-grey
ment seemed to be as far distant as they had ever been before.
eyes, a black beard and a light complexion; he was very intelligent
but had all the typical characteristics of a nouveau riche. He boasted in­
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