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A City Stole - Example Dubai
         increasingly mixed society. Although under the command of a British
         major until 1975,04 the policy was to avoid recruiting mercenaries,
         and only citizens of the Trucial States and the Sultanate of Oman
         were recruited. The force started with some 80 men and expanded to
         over one and a half thousand by the lime command changed hands in
         1975. Initially recruiting presented no problems, as the regular salary
         was a strong incentive for young men; also the prospect of useful
         training often rated high on the list of reasons why young men
         wanted to join the Dubai police. In later years both these points lost
         their attraction because of better pay in alternative employment and
         other educational opportunities; the attraction of the police force for
         certain young men then became rather the pride of working in a
         growing, well-organised institution providing scope for promotion
         and for learning specialised skills, and giving a challenge to men who
         were prepared to take on responsibilities.


         5 Analysis of the achievements

         To record the City State's achievements in the field of social services
         merely in figures does not necessarily indicate the real impact they
         had on the community in Dubai. However impressive the number of
         hospital beds, schools, fire brigades or police cars may be, the
         outstanding characteristic of Dubai from about 1955 onwards has
         been the way that the entire community has coped with the enormous
         growth of population. Not only during the 1970s, when the rate of
         growth accelerated beyond all expectation, but throughout this
         period, many a planned development, once executed, already fell
         short of the requirement. The magnitude of this problem of planning
         adequate social services is indicated by the fact that the population
         of Dubai doubled between 1968 (census: 59,000) and 1974 (estimated
         120,000). Planning for such an immense increase is difficult enough in
         an ethnically, culturally, and economically homogeneous com­
         munity; but in Dubai the increase, apart from a normal annual rise of
         3 per cent in the birth rate, was caused by immigration, and thus was
         always unbalanced in its composition and its structure. Many of the
         immigrants, particularly those from nearby countries, came initially
         to Dubai without their families, and they were not expected to reside
         permanently in Dubai. Yet, over the years, many of them have stayed
         and have been joined by their families, coming from Arab and

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