Page 95 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

difficult to got suitable pilots and engineers to join a small, new venture
Govcrnmcnt Hospital, where they were tended with kindness and
in the Persian Gulf, which nobody knew much about. Bosworth was
sympathy. An enquiry was held in Bahrain by M. Maurice Bcllontc, a
managing director and chief pilot, and for some time his wife kept the
senior French aviation official, who arrived shortly before the second
accounts. Then the Government granted a loan to the company and the
crash, and the Political Agent and officials of the British Ministry of Civil
Shaikh and some of his family invested money in it. Following their
Aviation held an investigation. For some days Bahrain was crowded with
example a number of merchants bought shares in Gulf Aviation, and with
journalists, and aviation officials and representatives ot the Embassy of
the support of B.O.A.C., without which the company could not have
France in Iraq. Rumours of sabotage were very strong and the Press in
existed, its prospects began to improve.
Europe, especially the French newspapers, made various suggestions
The attitude of the Arabs towards forming local companies was very
about possible reasons for sabotage. The two aircraft had come from
curious. They used constantly to tell me that one thing or the other was
Indo-China, where the French were fighting. It appeared that one of the
badly run, and that ‘something ought to be done about it’. For example,
passengers carried a full report of a vast underground racket of gold-
they complained about the bus services and the launches which plied
sinu ggling and dope-peddling which involved a number of highly placed
between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which were run by a number of inde­
persons in Indo-China. It was suggested that the people concerned would
pendent, private individuals, with no method and no time-tables. When
take any measures to prevent their racket being disclosed. Another sug- the merchants complained to me about these and other things, I often
gested reason for sabotage was the presence on one of the aircraft of a
said to them, ‘Why don’t you get together and form a local company to
senior French Government official carrying important documents for a
run efficient services?’ Their reply was, ‘The Government should do it.’
conference between Viet-Nam, Cambodia and Laos which was to be held
My answer was, ‘The Government has more than enough to deal with
in France. Certainly the conference did not take place. The results of the
already without running transport companies, but if you formed a
enquiries and of a later enquiry which was held in Paris were not published,
company then I dare say the Government would take shares in it/ But
but I doubt whether the cause of the two disasters was ever discovered.
this did not appeal to them. Several people admitted to me afterwards
The theory which most people in Bahrain held was that the first aircraft
that the trouble was that nobody cared to trust anyone else, so it was
came down as a result of bad weather, and that the second aircraft flew
impossible to work together. At the same time, if any foreigners talked
low over the place of the first crash in order to see it and in doing so flew
about starting a company in Bahrain the Bahrainis complained that they
too low. Bahrain has had its full share of air tragedies, for when the second
were being shut out of a profitable enterprise. It was a ‘dog in the manger’
B.O.A.C. Comet was lost off Italy, on its way to England, there were attitude. But Gulf Aviation was a different matter; the technical manage­
eleven passengers from Bahrain on board.
ment was in the hands of Europeans, a considerable proportion of the
It was in the spring of 1950 that the Gulf Aviation Company was capital was from Bahrain, and about half of the directors were Arabs. I
formed in Bahrain; it was a project which owed its inception to
an ex- myself was the first chairman of the company on an honorary basis.
R.A.F. officer, Frederick Bosworth, who brought his aircraft to Bahrain
After some time it became easier to get pilots from England, though
from Iraq where he had been unsuccessful in forming a charter company.
not all of them were satisfactory. One pilot provided a great deal of
Bosworth was a man of energy and enterprise and not easily disheartened,
undesirable publicity for Gulf Aviation. He was flying an Anson aircraft
as well as being an experienced pilot, but he had only a small amount of
from England to Bahrain. On the way he stopped in France. He was
capital. He discussed with me the project of formng an aviation company
engaged to a young woman who had been an air hostess in an airline in
in Bahrain to carry passengers and freight to and from places in the Gulf
South Africa. One day the couple went up in the Anson and flew out over
which were not served by British Overseas Airways, and to undertake
the English Channel, taking with them a charter company ‘captain’. In
charter flights when there was demand for them. I am by nature inclined
mid-air the ‘captain’ conducted a marriage between them. They returned
to be cautious, especially when, as in this case, Government funds were
to France and announced that they were now man and wife. The papers
concerned, but I was attracted by Bosworth’s scheme. I talked to the
in France and England got hold of the story, which made big headlines—
Shaikh about it, and I obtained his approval to back him.
the couple were described as ‘Les Maries de l’air*—and there was dis-
In the beginning it was a hard struggle. Money was short, and it was
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