"ملف 12/15 جولة الوكيل السياسي" [ظ‎‎١‎٢‎٢] (٤٦٩/٢٤٤)

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hundred all told and that of Bai*ah considerably more.
3. Passing on from Dibah we reached Khor Fakkan late at
night (29th), after about 24 hours run from Sharjah. Khor
Fakkan is a wide, pleasant bay and appears to be partly
sheltered from the monsoon swells which make loading and un
loading on this coast difficult in summer. The people are
followers of Shaikh Khalid who keeps a Wall there. There
are a number of date gardens and well water appears plentiful.
4. At 6 a.m. (30th) we embarked in Shaikh Humaid 1 s
(Khalid* s nephew) car and drove to Kalba which we reached
about 7.15 a.m. The road, about 35 miles, after surmounting
the "Aqaba’', a small pass leading over the hills out of Khor
Fakkan, proceeds for a few miles over stony ground covered
with M samr" (mimosa) trees until it emerges from the hills
onto the beginning of the Batinah coastal plain along which
it proceeds, sometimes across salt flats (sabkha) and some
times past date gardens and villages. Kalba, or Ghallah, is
a small seaside village of 400 - 500 inhabitants who exist
partly on cultivation and partly on fishing. The fish is
exported to Muscat.
5. The Minor Shaikh of Kalba, Hamad bin Said, is aged
about 10 years, he is obviously negroid (rather common on this
coast) and looked quite a likeable lad. He is treated with
scant ceremony by Shaikhs Khalid and Humaid and the latter's
manner suggested that he might entertain visions of himself
becoming Shaikh. Indeed, it would be surprising if he did
not, seeing that Kalba carries with it a substantial income
from Zakat, Customs, landing ground subsidy, Shaikh's gardens
and oil payments.
6. After breakfast with Shaikhs Khalid and Humaid, in a
room so filled with flies that it was with some difficulty
that /-