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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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