Page 697 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

95 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF TEE PERSIAN OULF

concessions end to obtain assurances in writing that they would not do bo.
The so assurances were duly secured and recorded.
A belief, resulting from reports of local pearl diverB, having obtained
currency to the effect that the practice of celling the oyster shells on shore,
which has prevailed during tho pact decade owing to the trade in mother-o’-
pcarl with Europe, and ha3 replaced the time-honoured practice of returning
the rejected shells to the deep after examination, wa3 resulting in the deple­
tion of the banks, the Government of India were urged to consider the expedi­
ency of deputing an expert to investigate the question scientifically.. The
proposal was approved in principle but abandoned for the present after
some discussion, chiefly on account of the difficulty of charging the cost to
Indian revenues. It is hoped, however, that the project, which is of the
highest importance to the welfare of the pearling industry, will ultimately
take shape.
Although, curious to relate, not a single Trucial Coast dhow has been
a™ Traffic. captured by His Majesty’s ships, cany-
mg smuggled arms, and although the
Trucial Shaikhs themselves persistently deny that there is any illicit export
of arm3 from their ports; yet the Arms Traffic reports from informers and
other sources place it beyond doubt that a regular stream of arm3 and ammuni­
tion is passing from Sohar through Baraimi to the coast between Ras
Muc?naira and Abu Dhabi, and that from this coast the bulk of the contra­
band finds its way through the shallows to the westwards, to A1 Bida, and
Katr generally, which, again, forms a convenient jumping off place for the
Persian Coast.
The attitude of the Shaikhs in regard to this traffic is rather one of
apathy resulting from incompetence and apprehension, than of active com­
plicity. It must be remembered that they have no levies or troops and that
it is as much as they can do to preserve order within the four walls of their
own towns, and defend those towns against Bedouin attack.
Between the seven or eight small towns on the littoral of the Trucial
Shaikhs intervene long stretches of uninhabited coast line over which the
Shaikhs can exercise no supervision by sea or control by land, and it is from
convenient spots along this barren coast that rendezvous are made and arms
shipped.
The men and animals, however, that bring these consignments to the coast
cannot return without water and supplies, for which they presumably proceed
eventually to the nearest inhabited spot. It is here that the Shaikhs could
theoretically help us, but at this point their natural apathy, and a well-
founded fear of reprisals from the Bedouin inland or by attack on their boats
at sea, militate against any effective action on their part.
That they have good ground for such fear is apparent from the unfor­
tunate experience of the Shaikh of Debai during the year under report under
the following circumstances:—
Early in the month of August, news was brought to the Shaikh to the
effect that a caravan load of arms from
Piracy on Debai boat by T&ngutanis.
Sohar had reached the coast near
Jumairah, a hamlet about six miles from Debai, and was in course of being
transferred to a Persian dhow when a sea got up and the dhow was swamped
and was breaking up, and that some of the arms were lying on the beach,
and others were awash in the dhow.
The Shaikh communicated with the Residency Agent and they decided
to proceed m company to the spot, with a party of armed men, to seize the
consignment. This they did and recovered the arms, but the Tangistani i
owners fle4 on their approach and getting back to Debai' under cover of night,
made good their escape in another Tangistani dhow.
This dhow soon after leaving Debai met a Debai pearling boat returning
from Ramzan from the fisheries, and wreaked its vengeance on the latter,
opening fire and killing eight of its occupants, and appropriating the vessel
and its catch of pearls.

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