IOR/R/15/2/694

The file contains correspondence and other papers related to anti-British and pro-German propaganda being disseminated at Sharjah, and specifically that being allegedly spread by the Ruler of Sharjah’s Secretary, Abdullah bin Faris. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman; Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban) and the Residency Agent at Sharjah (Khan Sahib Saiyid ‘Abd al-Razzaq).

The file includes:

• the Residency Agent’s reports on propaganda activities at Sharjah, dated July 1940, including anti-British statements made by the Ruler of Sharjah’s secretary, Abdullah bin Faris, and one report enclosing a number of poems (in Arabic original and English translation), two of which are pro-British in tone (ff 10-11, ff 13-14), and another, apparently written by the Ruler of Sharjah, Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī, which is pro-German in tone (f 12, f 15);
• a petition, signed by forty-eight inhabitants of Sharjah who are of Arabic, Iranian and Indian origin (Arabic original f 40, English translation ff 23-24) affirming that the Abdullah bin Faris is ‘the greatest supporter’ of the British Government;
• further correspondence between the Political Agent at Bahrain, the Residency Agent at Sharjah, and the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior), concerning reports that the signatures on the petition supporting Abdullah bin Faris were obtained by misrepresentation, and a circular, sent to those British (Indian) subjects at Sharjah who signed the petition, dated 16 October 1940, ensuring that they were fully aware of what they had signed (ff 38-39);
• letters sent by the Political Agent at Bahrain to the Ruler of Sharjah, Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī, warning him against the spread of anti-British propaganda in Sharjah, with replies from Shaikh Sultan (ff 21-24, ff 44-45).