TALE OF A CITY 30 response dated 13 July 1935: “I have not lost sight of the question of the Post Office for Sharjah, but the question has been held up by the following circumstances:- The main problem has been to find a Suitable house, providing an office room and accommodation for the postmaster, keeping in mind the necessity for security in a place like Sharjah. two plans were in my mind:- a. To site the Post Office in the Imperial Airways Rest House on the Aerodrome. b. To find a house close to the Residency Agent’s in the Town, This would give a safe site for the Post Office but there is no accommodation available in the Rest House either for the Post Office itself or for quarters for the Postmaster. These would have to be built and I do not see where the money would come from. The Rest House, too, is 3 miles from the town. The Shaikh has offered a rent free house On the Customs pier. This house is well sited for a Post Office, but as it is some little distance from the Residency Agent’s, it is not too well protected. Further, there are 2 provisos to the grant of the house: …” 16 The two provisions were: a. A reasonable rent be paid when the post office started to generate profits; and b. Delivery of the letters from the airport to the post office and their distribution be the monopoly of Sheikh Sultan using one of his own cars or a boat belonging to him. The Political Resident in the Gulf also said that he instructed “Cole”** who had lately visited Sharjah to inquire of the Sheikh if he intended to give a limited guarantee in addition to providing security for both the 16 Ibid. P.Z. 5745/1935. ** Georhe Ashmead Cole, Deputy to the Political Agent in Bahrain, and the Acting Political Agent in Bahrain as the Political Agent himself was on a break.
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