12.1 First an Important Matter, the Flag

On 10 June 1951 a Mr. C.T. Barber in London wrote to Lermitte to tell him that Messrs Airwork's aircraft were flying a Saudi Arabian flag when they landed on the Trucial Coast. When they were told that this was inappropriate they had asked for the design of the flags of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Barber wrote:

Lermitte replied that according to Article 3 of the General Treaty of 1820 the ‘friendly Arabs shall carry by land and sea a red flag, with or without letters in it, at their option, and this shall be in a border of white, the breadth of the white in the border being equal to the breadth of the red’. He wrote that, however, this had been discontinued and the shaikhs had adopted a simplified form. Lermitte sought the assistance of the Political Agent who told him that no official designs had been registered. Lermitte wrote that at the spudding in ceremonies for Ra's Sadr and Jebel Ali the company used red flags with a white border next to the mast, and no objections were raised.

Soon afterwards Lermitte was able to report that the Dubai flag was an oblong flag, the length being approximately three times the breadth; about five sixth of the flag being red and the remaining one sixth white, that part nearest the mast being white. Ajman and Umm al-Quwain adopted the same flag as Dubai.

Sharjah and Ra's al-Khaimah chose a white flag with a red square in the middle. The breadth of the white border being the same as the breadth of the red in the centre. By mid-October Lermitte was informed that the Abu Dhabi flag was plain red. But this was changed shortly afterwards to a red oblong flag with a white oblong next to the mast and reaching down to equal to one third the distance down the mast, and one third of the distance along the top.

12.2 A Very Unsatisfactory Situation

Sheikh Shakhbut embarked on a short tour of Bainunah and he started by visiting the PD(TC) operations on 24/25 March 1953, spending the night at the Tarif camp. The company was drilling the well Murban No.1, and he came for a belated celebration of the ‘spudding in’.