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Chapter Eight

                 boundaries were boiling up everywhere, and partly because the semi-
                 settled tribes of the interior felt the economic depression of the 1930s
                 and the War years most acutely, I he hinterland fell into a slate of
                 almost constant warfare. Raids by beduin groups against  one
                 another or against the coastal settlements became more frequent.
                  While the Rulers, Shaikh Shakhbul and Shaikh Sa'Td in particular,
                  were trying to secure influence over the inland tribes, notably the
                 Bani Qilab, Bani Ka'ab, the A1 Bu Sharnis, the Na’fm and the Bani
                 Yas’s traditional allies, the Manasir and 'Awamir, both states got
                 drawn into these incessant feuds. In September 1945 the increasingly
                  hostile atmosphere beleween the Rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai—
                  the latter State was by then very much under the control of Shaikh
                 Rashid bin Sa'Id—over the border problem and the beduin raids
                 developed into open warfare.
                    War meant still, as it had always done in this region, a series of
                 raids and counter-raids continuing over several months and even
                 years. Camels and other property were carried off, but human
                 casualties hardly ever exceeded single figures. In this war, which
                 lasted until 1948, other tribal leaders tried unsuccessfully to mediate,
                 but even the Rulers on both sides failed to restrain the beduin groups
                 from fighting, and had to dissociate themselves from them. Jabal al
                 Fayah and the Llwa area became the scenes of the most serious
                 fighting. The British Political Resident was altogether powerless to
                 intervene when the fighting occurred in the desert.
                   When, early in 1948, fifty-two Manasir were killed at Ruweihah
                 located between the Llwa and Abu Dhabi and many more were
                 wounded, the entire population of the coast became apprehensive at
                 the unprecedented scale of this war, and a movement to restore peace
                 became strong enough to bring about lasting agreements in 1948 and
                 1949 between all parlies concerned. The British authorities made use
                 of the general demand for peace, and more or less dictated the
                 frontier between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, drawn on the strength of
                 their own inquiries into tribal use of the area. For the first time the
                 British Government involved itself deliberately in affairs on land in
                 the Trucial States.

                 6 The Buraimi issue up to 1955
                 It was inevitable that as soon as PD (TC) exploration recommenced in
                 the late 1940s, this would lead to a revival of the dispute over the
                 entire length of the border between Abu Dhabi and the Kingdom of
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