Page 335 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Eight

assisting the local population to partake of some of the amenities
which the industrialised nations look for granted.
It was the increase in both the activities of the oil companies in I he
region and the more intensive involvement in the internal develop­
ment of these shaikhdoms which prompted the Foreign Office to raise
the level of the post on the Trucial Coast to that of Political Agent
in May 1953. By the end of the 1940s Sharjah’s importance had
declined, while Dubai, which was the thriving trading centre of the
1920s, had weathered the two subsequent difficult decades fairly
well and had eventually caught up with Sharjah. The Ruler of Dubai
had also accepted British requests for air facilities, and had been the
first to sign a concession agreement for oil exploration. In the 1950s,
the oil companies using Dubai as their headquarters on the coast
generated through their activities the need for certain facilities such
as postal and banking services and an improved harbour. At that
time Dubai therefore seemed to be the natural centre for the British
representation in the Trucial Stales, and in 1954 the Agent moved
from Sharjah to Dubai. Until 1961 the Political Agent in Dubai was
responsible for all the Trucial Stales;0,1 he was assisted from 1957
onwards by a Political Officer residing in Abu Dhabi, where the
increase in oil company activities, the number of British subjects
working in the State, and above all the revival of the Buraimi issue
made this immediate presence necessary. In 1961 the Abu Dhabi post
was itself promoted to a full Political Agency, because the discovery
of oil in commercial quantities had been announced in 1960 and it
was anticipated that there would be a surge in development and in
commercial activities.
The increasing interest shown in the area by the British Govern­
ment can also be seen from the change in the length of lime which
most appointees served in their posts on the Trucial Coast. The first
Political Officers stayed usually for only one season or one year, in
what was then regarded as a hardship-post, not long enough to get
involved in long term planning for the development of these Slates.
Since the move away from Sharjah, living conditions improved to the
extent that British civil servants were required to spend an average
of three years in their posts.
The considerable increase in the responsibilities of the British
officials went hand in hand with the increase in the British
Government’s involvement in the internal affairs of the Trucial
Stales. From 1950 onwards the Political Agent was also the Judge of

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