COPY
CONFIDENTIAL
Political Agency,
Trucial States,
Sharjah.
28th February, 1953.
(0602/7/53)
Dear Bill,
Would you please refer to your letter 1115/1/7/53 of 20th February.
2. Two agreements were made between the Ruler of Sharjah and the
British Bank of the Middle East, a Banking Agreement and a Lease Agreement.
I enclose a signed copy of each. By registration I, and the Bank Manager
who requested it in his covering letter, meant the witnessing of the
Agreements as legal documents, on payment of the appropriate consular fee.
However, on the assumption that my signature in any capacity implies the
approval of Her Majesty's Government (Martin Le Quesne's letter 15315/7/52
of 31st May 1952 about oil concessions) I refrained from doing so until I
should receive authority.
3. I had interpreted the last sentence of your letter 1115/1/2/53 of
25th January as meaning that you had no great objection to the signing of
the document provided I did not witness it. The draft I forwarded to you
under cover of my letter 0602/2/53 of January 15th in fact incorporated the
amendments suggested in my letter, so that the points in paragraph 2 of
your letter, once the sentence "If deportation etc." had been added to
Article 9, had already been met. Codrai indicated that the oil company
had been consulted (by the Bank) and had no objection. I am afraid I had
not realised from your letter that before approving the Agreement the
Foreign Office would require to see its detailed text, which is almost
identical with the Bank's Dubai Agreement except that it is not exclusive and
thus presumably even less likely to be found objectionable. The Bank
Manager took the view, which I was inclined to accept, that the whole business
is a very minor matter, more a gesture to the Ruler, although no doubt
precipitated by his approach to the Eastern Bank, than warranted or likely
to be warranted by the business that Sharjah can provide. If the Ruler
had made any attempt to raise his terms by playing off one bank against the
other tha Bank of the Middle East, so Bradford told me, would not have
pursued the matter.
4. As you have surmised, the Ruler did not consult me himself about the
agreement, but I have reminded him of the 1938 exchange of letters (of which
incidentally I have just received a copy). You will have noted from
Article 12 that the Bank have agreed to open within month of the signing of
the Agreement, that is by March 5th. I doubt whether they will in fact be
able to fulfil this undertaking, but if they are I should be grateful for
instructions as to whether they should be asked to delay pending the approval
of the Foreign Office. I can explain the reason to Shaikh Saqr if he
complains.
Yours,
M.S. WEIR.
W.S. Laver Esq.,
The British Residency,
BAHRAIN.
