‘File 7/25 Complaints regarding sale of R.A.F. stores’ [‎2r] (5/78)

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Fort that the vehicles were to be sold that day# He added
that the Shaikh of Sharjah and Rashid of Dubai (who bought
them all last time) wanted to see them. I was surprised
as this was not in accordance with what Jones had told
me. However, that morning I wrote to him about the
customs duty (my letter No.286 attached A) and this
brought him ho1>-fodt round to the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. to say that he
would not collect duty at two different rates and'odemand
arrogantly that one rate of 5^ be charged.His grounds
for this were that the buyers would not understand the
different rates and that he was too busy to calculate the
duty at Z'fo and 12^. To satisfy him on the first point I
had prepared typed notices in Arabic for the buyers explain
ing the position, and on the second I said that I was
complying with the Shaikh of Sharjah's request, that he
was entitled to import duty on R,A.F.goods if sold to the
public, and that he was bound by agreements with the
neighbouring Shaikhs not to charge more than 2^ from their
subjects, i got the impression that the difficulties ment
ioned were not the real reason for Jones* objections.
5. T added that it would be most inconvenient for
him, for the buyers, and for the R.A.F. if the Shaikh of
Sharjah had to collect the duty himself because he would
post his guards on the exits from the camp to collect it.
He accepted this and promised also to show the vehicles
for sale to the Shaikhs of Sharjah and to Rashid, who
then followed him back to the Camp. There he tackled
Shar jah and asked him why he could not take duty at a
single rate of 5^. Sharjah gave him no encouragement,
6. Sharjah and Rashid then returned and complained
that they were handled very rudely, were shown only
vehicles, and were asked to bid above Rs.50,000/- fur
21 vehicles (one of them a motor-cycle and one a trailer)
which are reported to be only shells from which all
valuable parts have been^emoTTe d. They have lain in the
open unused since the last sale, many with their engines
open. They are valued locally at not more than Rs.20,000/-
They complained that they had not been shown any spares.
7. Accordingly, I wrote my letter No.291 (attached
B ) and got exhibit C in reply. T immediately wrote my
letter No.294 (attached D). Jones did not answer this in
writing but spoke to me in the Cinema (in spite of
strenuous efforts on my part to avoid him so that he would
have to write) and said that the spares had been sold with
the vehicles to the same buyers for an additional
Rs.20,000/-; that there were only ten tons of spares and
that Rs.2,000/- per ton was a very good price for them.
He added that the Shaikhs showed so little interest in the
vehicles at Rs.50,000/- that he did not think it worth