'File 14/1- Vol 6 OIL CONCESSIONS MUSCAT' [‎151r] (301/438)

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Copy of extracts from D.O.No.253.0630, dated
the 21st March, 1948, from Mr. G.N. Jackson, MBE, Political
Officer, Truclal Coast, Sharjah, to Mr. C.«ff>. Felly, OBE,
Political Ager.t, Bahrain.
Para 5: I did not gather from Bird that he
contemplated making a formal agreement with the A1 £u
Shamis or any other tribe. My impre:sion w s th&t he is
not authorized by his Company to make formal agreements
with anyone; but thrt, because he thinks that they are
more likely to honour written promises than verbal ones,
he proposed to ask them for their permission in writing
for the Company to explore in their area for the next
three years in return for stipulated ad hoc payments.
Bird realizes that there is a risk of their dishonouring
even written promises; but Shaikh Zayid, whom Bird
consulted in Bursimi, thought that they would honour
them. Also, Bird considers it better to try to get N
them to commit themselves now for three years in ad
vance rather than that the Company should have to ne
gotiate an entrance fee afresh every year. For the
Company to hrve to do so would, he thinks, put the tribes
in a position to increase exorbitantly their de ands as
the Company became increasingly committed. Their be
haviour up to da'e certainly supports this view. For
the season 1946-46 Lermitte paid the Al Bu Shamis Shaikhs
about Bs.2,000/- for permission to mate © geological
survey - which the Company made. In 1947 Shaikh Muhammad
bin Rahmah asked Rs.10,000/- for permission to do a
geophysical survey of a very smell part of his area -
involving about 2 hours* work -; and this year he asked
at first Rs. 1 lakh One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees a year for permission to survey and
has now reduced the demand to Rs.26,000/- a year, without as yet
committing himself to this figure for three years. It
appears unlikely that the Sulten would object to these
payments, which are not being deducted from the Company*s
payments to him, end which, indeed, relieve him of the
responsibility for obtaining entry for the Company into
country which he may claim but over whicn he has no control
whatsoever. indeed, the Al Eu Shamis absolutely deny
that the Sultan has any suzerainty or even i; fluence over
them, and they are contemptuous of his pretensions.
XXX
XXX
5. According to the Shaikh of Fujairah all the Zakat
of the #adi Samall is collected by the Imam arid the area
directly administered by him. Unless the Company could
reach an understanding with the Imam, therefore, it would
be impossible for them to re?ch Izki or Ibri by this route.
By entering from the North-west, however, the Company hope
at least to gain access to the Dhahirs area (containing
Dhank, Aflaj Beni Qitab, Mazam etc.), which is not under
the Imam or Suleiman bin Himyer, and possibly to Ibri,
in which Sulaiman bin Himyar has great influence. Bird
hopes to meet Sulaiman bin HAmyar in Buraimi to ascertain
his reactions to the Company's overtures. Further, this
area is contiguous to the area they have have already
surveyed from the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ; and to survey it next
is the logical and convenient continuation of their present
operations. For thesg reasons, I understand, the Com; any
regard the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sairail as at present the more difficult of
the two possible approaches to their objectives.