Page 485 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Eight
instance when the disapproval of this trade had assumed the character
of an official agreement.
32 Qishim was a base only for two years and was eventually superseded by
Basldu. See Kelly. Britain, pp. 167ff, Lorimer, Histor., p. 676. The force
consisted in 1823 of four cruisers patrolling the Gulf and one cruiser
employed for supplies and communications.
33 Earlier, some pearl merchants of Sharjah had actually offered payment
to the British Government if the safety of their boats at sea could be
guaranteed. See Lorimer, Histor., p. 695, and for the texts of the ten-year
"Maritime Peace" and the "Perpetual Treaty of Peace of 1853" see
Aitchison, Treaties, 1933 edn pp. 250 and 252.
34 For a brief summary of the stages leading to this point see e.g. Wilson,
Persian Gulf, pp. 213ff and Eldon Rutter, "Slavery in Arabia", Journal of
the Royal Central Asian Society, vol. XX, 1933, pp. 315-32.
35 Aitchison, Treaties, 1933 edn p. 289f. The fact that slavery became a
somewhat overrated issue in the relationship between the Government
of India and the Arab principalities, particularly Oman, cannot be
sufficiently explained through the incidence and the nature of slavery in
that part of the world. It rather reflects the fixation which many British
politicians developed as a result of a sense of "national conscience" over
the very active part played by some Englishmen in this trade, which
flourished most of all in the New World of both Americas. The
overreaction in the Arab context can almost be compared to the bending
over backwards of the new German Government to demands of the
Israeli Government after the Second World War. The general sense of
guilt spurred the authorities into enormous efforts in order to wipe out
or make redress for what happened in the past.
36 For details of further agreements with Oman see Wilson, Persian Gulf,
pp. 216ff and Lorimer, Histor., p. 2475 to 2516.
37 See Lorimer, Histor., p. 725.
38 The Native Agent was in fact never during the 19th century a person of
tribal origin from the Arab coast of the Gulf, but usually an Arabic-
speaking Muslim from the Indian subcontinent or the Persian coast. For
a list of the names of people holding this post between 1829 and 1890 see
Lorimer, Histor., p. 2678; see for further names until this appointment
was abolished in 1949, Hawley, Trucial States, p. 328 and Said-Zahlan,
Origins, pp. 248ff.
39 This was not the first instance when the British Government assumed
the right to collect a fine if certain conditions were not met by the
shaikhs. The treaty which was concluded between the East India
Company and the Qawasim on February 1806 laid down a fine of 30,000
M.T. Dollars to be paid by Sultan bin Saqr if the Qawasim did infringe
on the conditions of the treaty. See Aitchison, Treaties, vol. XI, 1933 edn
pp. 239ff. A fine of 25,000 M.T. Dollars was imposed on the Ruler of Abu

459