Page 493 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

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Notes to Chapter Eight

113 Article 62, pari (2) or the Order in Council of 1950.
114 See the examples given by Hawley, Trucial States, pp. 180f.
115 There is an eye-opening chapter on the manifestations of a craving for
modern education which beset many families on the Trucial Coast in
particular in Sharjah, Dubai and Ra’s al Khaimah after the Second
World War in Abdullah, M. Morsy. The United Arab Emirates, pp. 143ff.
116 Mr E.F. Henderson, then an employee of PD (TC), who had previously
assisted in compiling evidence for the UK Memorial, was sent to Buraimi
during the fighting which ousted the Saudi garrison from Hamasah on
26 October 1955 to bring the tribes of the area to accept the new
situation. During the course of his mission he noticed that about half of
all date groves were dead or dying because during the preceding years
of political instability the routine maintenance on the aflaj had not been
carried out. He applied to the British Political Agent in Dubai for funds
to implement a restoration project, which was thought out in conjunc­
tion with the Ruler’s wali, Shaikh Zayid, and the ’urafa' of Abu Dhabi’s
aflaj. Over a period of six months all seven a/7a; (about 50 per cent of
their combined length) were cleaned of debris and silt, working
upstream from the outlet. Each section of a falaj was inspected by Mr
Henderson, together with an ’arlf and prospective local contractors, to
ascertain the amount of repair work which needed to be done. The work
was then auctioned in small lots of about 50 metres to 1,000 metres, and
price, time scale and other conditions were verbally agreed between Mr
Henderson and the citizen who, with members of his family and friends,
carried out this work. The result of this work was a 50 per cent increase
in the flow of water, which meant revitalising all the existing date
gardens. The cost to the British Government amounted to £5,000
Sterling.
117 Members of this Deliberative Committee were officials or important
merchants delegated by each Ruler. Abu Dhabi was not represented
during the first years. The Committee met more frequently than the
Trucial States Council (22 times between September 1964 and October
1968); it decided upon priorities for projects, discussed the annual
budgets, and served in many other ways as a cabinet. It was superseded
in December 1968 by the newly formed Executive Committee.
118 Trucial States Council, Report 1969, p. 48.
119 Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had already gone ahead with various
educational and medical projects and established their own admini­
stration through which to channel their substantial aid. In 1963 the
Kuwait State Office was opened in Dubai, which co-ordinated the
educational and health projects and the construction of mosques. In
1968 Saudi Arabia opened an office in Dubai through which generous
assistance was allocated. See also for the following, Hawley, Trucial
States, pp. 227ff.
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