TALE OF A CITY 124 “(a) The only State or Government which is entitled to conclude an Air Agreement with either Sharjah or Dubai is H.M.G. (b) As regards Sharjah it would perhaps be preferable, in order to avoid the accusation that we were establishing an R.A.F. base there, for the facilities required by the R.A.F. to be covered by a Civil Air Agreement in the present form even if the continuing civil air requirements were only a small proportion of those of the R.A.F and the aerodrome were manned by the R.A.F. In that case however, the agreement would probably require some modifications e.g. the references to B.O.A.C. might be replaced by references to H.M.G or their agents.3 The air Ministry in turn responded on 30 July 1946 saying that the use of Sharjah aerodrome was considered necessary, since it was the take-off and landing ground of the R.A.F in the Far East route. As a result, the Air Ministry should be ready –by virtue of suitable terms- to take over the responsibilities assigned to this aerodrome from B.O.A.C. The Air Ministry sent their views to the India British Foreign Ministry in a letter dated 25 July 1946. The letter stated: “ The airfield at SHARJAH is a permanent requirement as a staging post on the Royal Air Force trunk route to the Far East. We shall accordingly be prepared, under suitable conditions, to take over responsibility for this airfield from B.O.A.C. and to provide such emergency facilities as B.O.A.C. may require. 3. There will be no regular R.A.F. requirement for the use of DUBAI, andwe think it will be all right to discontinue the lease of this base. We shall probably want the moorings left in place, however, in case of emergency. 4. You will presumably now be communicating with the Political resident and with the Indian Government on the political and civil aviation aspects, and when you have their views we can consider together with the Foreign Office and Ministry of Civil Aviation what sort of agreement should, in due course, replace the current one.” 4 The Defense Ministry decided to replace the existing agreement with 3 Ibid., L.P.&S/12/2042, EXT.4539/1946. 4 Ibid., L.P.&S/12/2042,EXT.5156/1946.
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