Page 279 - UAE Truncal States

Chap I nr Seven

While they and a great number of other Arab merchants saw their
businesses decline or even collapse, the merchants of the town who
had long-standing trading connections in Persia and knew how to
avoid the Imperial Persian Customs restrictions had something to
fall back on. The opportunities for illicit trading with a black market
in Persia were probably even greater in the 1930s than before.20 The
goods which were in great demand and being smuggled into Persia
by boat as well as camel caravan from Iraq were sugar, tea, all types
of cloth, hides and even cement.27 An important side-effect of the
continued economic depression on the Persian side of the Gulf was
the mass emigration which became a severe problem by the 1930s.
Statistics kept by the police office at Bushire showed that during
the seven months from March to the end of October 1934, 6,000
inhabitants of Bushire and the surrounding district left their homes;
at least half of them went to Arab ports.28
The loading and unloading of dhows at Dubai and at most Trucial
Coast ports were concealed in creeks and could not be observed by
vessels at sea; and the shaikhs did not welcome frequent visits by
British naval officers to their ports. The Persian merchants were
accustomed to buying the smaller classes of old bum made in Kuwait,
and the fact that Persian-made jalibuts were not easily distinguished
from those built on the Arab coast contributed to the impression that
most of the smuggling was done on Arab vessels.29 This widespread
misconception was, however, gradually revised.30 But this does not
imply that none of the native merchants of Dubai had any involve­
ment in or trade benefits from the illicit re-export; merely that the
nature of the trade precluded them from playing any leading role in it.
The genuine discontent of the A1 Bu Falasah and the leading
members of the Arab community in Dubai during the later 1930s
made them hungrily and constantly seek ever more proof that
conditions, privileges and customs were in need of reform, and
pursue ideas and ideals which would support as well as sanction
their movement. Therefore the news that a similar movement in
Kuwait was successful in forcing the Ruler in July 1938 to give power
to an elected council provided the supporters of the reform movement
in Dubai with the necessary additional backbone and confidence to
pursue their cause.
Very many of the suggestions which the A1 Bu Falasah and their
supporters put forward would probably never have met with so
mu ch adamant opposition from the Ruler if there had not been such a
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