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Chapter Eight

5th of February; the Rulers of 'Ajman and Umm al Qaiwain went
aboard ship to sign on the 15th of March when Keir was already on
his way to the Persian coast. The Shaikh of Rams soon lost the
support of most of his people, and he and the Shaikh of Jazirah al
Hamra’ were later deposed by the British authorities, and Sultan bin
Saqr was eventually recognised as the Ruler over all the ports of the
Qawasim, which did not include ’Ajman nor Umm al Qaiwain.
Sayyid Sa’fd of Oman, although benefiting most from the downfall of
the Qawasim, did not participate in the drafting of the treaty, nor did
he slay in Ra’s al Khaimah for long enough to witness its signatures.
Impact of the treaty on the relationships between Arab Rulers
The general treaty laid down the foundation for a new type of
relationship between the British Indian Empire and the Arabs of the
lower Gulf. This treaty was only one of many which the authorities in
India concluded over the generations with tribal societies on the
fringes of the empire.
More significant is that this treaty began to change the relation­
ship among the littoral Arab Rulers themselves: they had now made
a truce with each other through making a truce with the British
authorities. It was expected by both parties that the British would
police the Gulf to prevent violation of the treaty. This was, however,
not very effective because the British authorities lacked the means to
patrol constantly in the Gulf. They also avoided the resentments
which close observation would inevitably have created among the
Arabs of the Gulf. As it was the Arab Rulers became accustomed to
the idea that there was a British “fire-brigade” which any one of them
could call in if a settlement could not be reached by diplomacy or by
war. It therefore needed little effort on the part of the British
authorities to persuade the Rulers to depend more and more on the
outside guarantor in the subsequent treaties of 1835 and 1853. For
the small price of maintaining five cruisers al Bushire, which gave the
impression that prompt diplomatic and naval action was forth­
coming if the treaties were violated, the British authorities eventually
gained a position from which they could shape politics on these
shores if they so wished, under the pretext of any of the wide range of
issues covered by the treaties.

Practicalities of peace-keeping
The General Treaty of Peace of 1820 was important not so much
because it was an attempt to bring about complete peace, for in this it

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