Page 325 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Eight

discussed in Chapter Three the need for the tribes in the hinterland
to have access to markets, the use of pearling boats and ports, and
the gradual growth ol the.* political predominance of the coastal
Rulers recognised by the British, resulting in, Tor instance, the
establishment of the territorial Slate of Abu Dhabi and its Ruler’s
authority over the Buraimi area.
Yet the degree of authority or mere influence remained tenuous
even during the first decades of the 20lh century. The vagueness of
political sovereignly and territorial identification suited all sides,
and, as far as the hinterland was concerned, even the British
authorities. The conclusion of concessionary agreements pul a
sudden end to this stale of affairs. Now it became necessary to define
precisely the boundaries of a concession area and therefore the limits
of a Ruler’s authority: but this very necessity provoked disputes and
disturbed the peace which was essential if any foreign company was
to search for oil.04 The prospect of the discovery of oil could have fed a
potentially explosive situation.
The Political Agent in Bahrain, who from 1934 had been directly
responsible for the Trucial States, urged the Political Resident in
Bushire to initiate official contacts with the shaikhs of the interior
and at the same lime to try to ascertain the actual territorial extent of
the sovereignty of each of the Trucial Rulers. During the summer of
1937 the Residency Agent was sounding out each Ruler about his
territorial claims. On the strength of this evidence PD (TC), supported
by the Political Agent in Bahrain, tried to obtain access to areas in the
interior, notably around Buraimi, with the support of the coastal
Rulers. But the latter did not agree among themselves over who
could claim authority over the various tribes of the hinterland; and
the tribes themselves, despite overtures and payments by most of the
Trucial Rulers in turn, could not be moved to recognise any one of
them as overlord. A party of PD (TC) geologists who tried to collect
information in the Buraimi area in 1937 was not very successful be­
cause their movements were restricted. Whereas the Trucial Rulers
argued amongst themselves over the extent of the territories for
which some had already signed concessionary agreements, the
shaikhs of the tribes in the hinterland, notably the Bani Qitab, Bani
Ka'ab, A1 Bu Shamis and NaTm, wanted neither agreements nor
money from the oil companies but were chiefly concerned with their
independence from any coastal Ruler, or the Sultan of Oman, and
above all from the British Government. The Second World War

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