'File 0436 Sharjah Air Agreement' [‎6r] (11/110)

requested - vide your predecessor^ letter No. 35 dated the
1st February, 1942 - to provide an unspecified number of
additional guards to guard the new E*A«F. Canip. I have
nothing on record here to show the number of guards decided
upon; nor have the Shaikh or the R.A.F# But I understand
from enquiries I have made that first 20 were supplied and
that the number was later raised.at the verbal request of
the Officer Commandingf R*A*F*, to 38. The
Command Auditor, who is here now, confirms that during the
war when Sharjah was a regular h.A.F. Station the Officer
Commanding was authorized to settle such matters on his
own initiative without reference to Air Headquarters. The
38 guards to which you refer in paragraph 3 of your express
letter ko. 141 are these guards. They have always been
paid by the R.A.F. and they are quite separate from the
37 guards paid for through this office under the terms of
the 1932 Air Agreement.
4. The misunderstanding about the guards has
arisen because the Officer Commanding of the i.A.F* here,
who has a copy of the Air Agreement of 1932, took it upon
himself — without fully understanding the position and
without consulting this office — to inform Air Headquarters
that the R.A.F. here are paying the guards that are already
being paid for through this office.
marked 46 men to provide a nightly guard of 38 men at the
R.A.F. Camp and 18 nen to provide a standing guard of 2 men
at the B.O.A.C. Rest House. It appears to me that the pay of
37 guards agreed to in 1932 was in the nature of a payment
for police protection. B.O.A.C. here are not so much
concerned that the full 37 should constantly be employed as
that secu ity should be good. Indeed, the pjzysical presence
of so many guards would be an embarrassment to B.O.A.C. xhe
Officer Commanding, R.A.F., however, insistson the physical
presence at night of all the 38 guards employed by the R.a.F.
As far as I can ascertain the Shaikh has ear
. Officer, Trucial
Coast, Sharjah.
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