IOR/R/15/2/757

The file comprises copies of correspondence relating to: 1) construction work at RAF Sharjah to accommodate troops and equipment of the United States Army Transport Corps (USATC); 2) questions over the policing of US troops at Sharjah, raised prior to and after an incident of alleged attempted abduction of a woman by US troops at Sharjah in August 1944. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield; Major Tom Hickinbotham); the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast (Captain Maurice Patrick O’Connor Tandy; Reginald Michael Hadow; Captain Richard Ernest Bird).

The file includes:

• correspondence dated late 1943 to early 1944 concerning construction work at RAF Sharjah, to accommodate USATC troops and transmitting equipment, including: delays and difficulties in obtaining building materials; application to the Shaikh of Sharjah [Sultan bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī] for the lease of land to the Royal Air Force (RAF) (ff 40-41, ff 46-49); plans for a significant increase in the number of US troops at Sharjah (ff 51-52, f 59); availability of and wages for construction labour (ff 90-93); questions over the disposal of the new buildings after the war (ff 99-100);
• correspondence related to concerns voiced by the Political Agent at Bahrain, and the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast that an increase in United States oil refinery labour at Bahrain, and troops at Sharjah, may require the presence of additional policing and legal authorities, specifically in the form of an American Army Provost (f 13, ff 22-23, ff 55-57);
• correspondence relating to the departure, in March 1944, of 244 Squadron from Sharjah, with a gift of ammunition made to the Shaikh of Sharjah for his assistance during the squadron’s two-year stay in Sharjah (f 26, f 28, ff 38-39, ff 44-45);
• correspondence relating to an incident, occurring in Sharjah in August 1944, in which US troops were alleged to have attacked the mother-in-law of Shaikh Majid, including: an initial report of the incident by the Residency Agent at Sharjah (f 60); a report of the incident, sent by the Political Agent in Bahrain to the Political Resident (ff 63-64); further reports of the incident by RAF and USATC officers (ff 67-71); a request by the Political Resident for USA provost personnel at Sharjah (f 72).