TALE OF A CITY 94 am surprised at this –hearing is different from seeing. Regarding the retention of the service of myman«Abdullah bin Faris, if I did not consider him to be sincere and loyal I would not have employed him. His devotion to the British Government is known to me and the people and as I stated previously, know nothing to the contrary about him. May I therefore request Your Excellency to accept my sincere excuse combined withmy best compliments. I pray God to grant you victory and success. Usual Endings.” 10 The events of World War II did not initially go in favour of the British, especially that German aircrafts bombed London to the ground. The British could not scold Sheikh Sultan till the war ended in 1945. I was an eye witness to the Sharjah events at the time, and I saw the multitudes of people gathering in the Sharjah Fort front yard to listen to the news from the radio. I documented this in my earlier book “My Early Life” where I stated: “ Over these areas was the room where the Sheikh held his majlis, in front of which was an open terrace followed by a covered arcade. All of it gave onto the front courtyard of the Fort so that in the evening, when Sheikh Sultan’s brothers and their children came together to have their supper, people would mass in front of Sharjah Fort, singly or in groups, to listen to news broadcasts about the war (this was in 1945). They could hear the radio from one of the windows in the room on the upper floor of the Fort. Half of the people supported the Allies and half supported the Axis powers. The news from the German radio station, with the sharp tongue of the Iraqi broadcaster Yunus Bahri, would infuriate the supporters of the Allies, just as the news coming from the BBC Middle East service through the voice of the SyrianMunir Shamma angered the supporters of the Axis. From the windows overlooking the Fort’s front square we children watched the fighting between the two sides.” (2011: p.10) 10 Ibid., p.43.
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