Page 335 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
P. 335

Chapter Eight

                assisting the local population to partake of some of the amenities
                which the industrialised nations look for granted.
                  It was the increase in both the activities of the oil companies in I he
                region and the more intensive involvement in the internal develop­
                ment of these shaikhdoms which prompted the Foreign Office to raise
                the level of the post on the Trucial Coast to that of Political Agent
                in May 1953. By the end of the 1940s Sharjah’s importance had
                declined, while Dubai, which was the thriving trading centre of the
                1920s, had weathered the two subsequent difficult decades fairly
                well and had eventually caught up with Sharjah. The Ruler of Dubai
                had also accepted British requests for air facilities, and had been the
                first to sign a concession agreement for oil exploration. In the 1950s,
                the oil companies using Dubai as their headquarters on the coast
                generated through their activities the need for certain facilities such
                as postal and banking services and an improved harbour. At that
                time Dubai therefore seemed to be the natural centre for the British
                representation in the Trucial Stales, and in 1954 the Agent moved
                from Sharjah to Dubai. Until 1961 the Political Agent in Dubai was
                responsible for all the Trucial Stales;0,1 he was assisted from 1957
                onwards by a Political Officer residing in Abu Dhabi, where the
                increase in oil company activities, the number of British subjects
                working in the State, and above all the revival of the Buraimi issue
                made this immediate presence necessary. In 1961 the Abu Dhabi post
                was itself promoted to a full Political Agency, because the discovery
                of oil in commercial quantities had been announced in 1960 and it
                was anticipated that there would be a surge in development and in
                commercial activities.
                  The increasing interest shown in the area by the British Govern­
                ment can also be seen from the change in the length of lime which
                most appointees served in their posts on the Trucial Coast. The first
                Political Officers stayed usually for only one season or one year, in
                what was then regarded as a hardship-post, not long enough to get
                involved in long term planning for the development of these Slates.
                Since the move away from Sharjah, living conditions improved to the
                extent that British civil servants were required to spend an average
                of three years in their posts.
                  The considerable increase in the responsibilities of the British
                officials went hand in hand with the increase in the British
                Government’s involvement in the internal affairs of the Trucial
                Stales. From 1950 onwards the Political Agent was also the Judge of

                310
   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340