'File 3/21 Political Officer, Qatar and Political Affairs, Qatar' [‎36r] (71/94)

and on average it ought to balance out. The business of t
trying to calculate costs on a basis of mileage would, I
think, have been less satisfactory owing to the difficulty
ot calculating dead mileage on a car which is housed elsewhere
and only used part time.
m. ,, 6 * I discussed w r ith Langham the position here when
iirbutt goes on leave, which he is due to do in the third
week of next month, he said that he thought that it would
be possible to dispense with a full-time Company reoresen-
tatiye in Jpha in future, and I gathered than he contemplated
leaving me m full possession here provided that the Company
continued to enjoy certain facilities such as the maintenance
91 their w r ireless postfwhich we should wish to see maintained
in any case) and a smell staff for certain of their admin
istrative requirements connected with the movement cf stores
and personnel. I am pursuing the question with Langham to
jino °ut exactly vrhat the Company’s reouirements would be.
if the company are happy with such an arrangement, it is by
far the best from our point of view, as the only other avails
able accommodation fit to live in belongs either to Selih al
Mani* or the Darwish family, in neither of whose camps we
wish to appear to dwell.
. T. 9 . Tn th 0 long run there will be no alternative for us
t? building our own house and at the first suitable opportu-
nity ishall approach the Sheikh about a piece of land/ The
site which seemed the most desirable to Gethin and myself
when we looked around appears to be State land, and is to the
yest of the Doha palace, overlooking the sea. I shall put
; ie tentatively so that there will be room later for
the Ministry of Works to change my mind if they see fit,
but t think some sort of understanding is desirable, other
wise we shall find uncontrolled speculation in any piece of
land m winch 1 display an interest.