99 Usual endings. Your Friend, Sultan.” 4 Things were moving fast in that direction, as a shipment of military equipment arrived in Sharjah earlier than its expected date. On 26 January 1942, 88 tons of bombs together with military cargo vehicles belonging to the British Air Force arrived and were stored in Dubai. The Ruler of Dubai was not informed of this and it was planned that if he were to object that he would be told that the shipment belonged to Sharjah. In Sharjah itself, instructions had been given on 23 January 1942 to start the work on extending the existing aerodrome and the bomb storage area as well as the construction of two camps. It was claimed that Sheikh Sultan had already pre-approved all this in his letter of 18 October 1941. In actual fact, what Sheikh Sultan had approved was only the improvements to the landing grounds in Sharjah.5 As a result another request for the Sharjah military base was made as follows: “ Dated 6 February 1942 From: Political Officer, Trucial Coast, Sharjah To: Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr Ruler of Sharjah. After compliments, In your letter no. 206 dated 26 Ramadan 1360, equivalent to 18October 1941, you very kindly agreed to the improvement of the landing ground facilities in Sharjah. 2. The Political Agent, Bahrein, instructs me to intimate to you that the Royal Air force authorities have now informed him in detail of the improvements which they wish to carry out. These are: i. Extension of the existing aerodrome ; ii. Construction of two camps totaling 66 reed huts and some minor buildings to the eat 4 Ibid., p.176. 5 I.O.R./L.P.&S/12/2040, pp.6−7,18−20 A WAR TIME MILITARY BASE IN SHARJAH
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