Page 247 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Six

cultured pearls, and several of the established importers of pearls,
rather than trying to emphasise these differences, went along with
the market trend and ceased to buy expensive pearls from Bombay.
The cultured pearls had become a threat not only on the distant
markets of New York but at home too. In January 1948 the Ruler of
Bahrain had a meeting with the leading pearl merchants, who urged
him “to lake all measures possible, in conjunction with the Ruler of
Saudi Arabia and other Rulers of I he Gulf States to forbid the entry
of foreign pearls into the Gulf States”. The reason for this appeal was
that Venezuelan and Red Sea pearls had been sent to Bahrain
merchants for disposal. It was also feared that even cultured pearls
might be brought into the Gulf.59
In the event the threat of an embargo on pearl imports to India
lasted only one season, and in June 1948 it was announced: "The
Government of India have staled that pearls may now be imported
into India freely. It is understood however that import licences are
still required."60 But the pearling industry of the ports of the Gulf had
by that time already disintegrated almost beyond remedy, because
most of the participants in the industry had dispersed, being unable
to wait for all these years in the hope that the markets of the world
might recover. Many divers had abandoned the seasonal diving and,
if they were tribal people from the desert, concentrated on their other
activities; or if they had come to these ports from across the Gulf they
either drifted back home or found other jobs. Eventually there were
the openings for ex-divers in the oil industry abroad and at long last
even at home.61 Many of the erstwhile pearl merchants, if they were
Banians, returned to their homes which their families had in any case
never left. The Persian and Arab members of this group, many of
whom had earlier participated in the import of consumer goods,
disengaged from the trade in pearls and concentrated on the import
and entrepot trade. The volume of this trade grew quite significantly
from the early 1950s onwards, and, due to the start of oil company
activity, the outlook was not as bleak after the Second World War as
it would otherwise have been.
But nevertheless for those who had seen the very much better
years of the 1920s. the lean years from 1930 onwards must have been
extremely difficult. The most trying aspect of this period was
probably that the relief from this depressed economic status did not
come simultaneously to all the one-time pearling communities of the
Gulf ports, but that Bahrain, Kuwait, and neighbouring Qatar
seemed for some time to be the only lucky countries.

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