103 governor ofHeera, passed away after a long life of hardships andmisfortune. He was succeeded by his son, Sheikh Saif bin Abdulrahman al-Shamsi.10 It was during this period that some cases of smallpox appeared in Sharjah, and the people rushed to be vaccinated against it. The English were trying to get the commercial aviation agreement with Sharjah renewed. The renewal date was 1 July 1943 and they asked Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi to make a minor modification which they considered necessary in the new agreement. The Political Officer in Sharjah was commissioned to discuss this issue with Sheikh Sultan. This was in early February 1943. During the discussion, Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr talked in great detail about the ships that had stopped coming to Sharjah. To him, this was a right that he relied on for the running of the economy in his territory. He meant to say that while he was going to approve the renewal of the air agreement, he was drawing the attention of the British Government to abide by its commitment for the commercial ships to come to Sharjah.11 The Sharjah Political Officer acknowledged Sheikh Sultan’s right regarding the commercial ships and wrote to the Political Resident, Bushire, saying that in spite of the fact that such a commitment did not seem too important, the BritishGovernment had to fulfil it and that Sheikh Sultan was right about highlighting this issue in the discussion regarding the renewal of the air agreement.12 On 18 February 1943, the Political Resident in the Gulf requested from the British India Government to act upon this issue with the cargo authorities to the effect that one of the commercial ships was to go to Sharjah once a month. This was acted upon and ships carrying grain started to come to Sharjah following arrangements by the Middle East Cargo Center and the Government of India. However, the absence of commercial products was obvious in the ports of Sharjah. As a result, the Political Agent in Bahrain informed the Ruler of Sharjah and the Sharjah political Agent that the cargo 10 I.O.R./L.P.&S/12/3671, EXT.3913/1943, P.Z.2224/1941, I.O.R./R/15/1/240, p.61. 11 Ibid., L.P.&S/12/2042, pp.115−117. 12 Ibid. A WAR TIME MILITARY BASE IN SHARJAH
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