Page 17 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

4 Arabia, the Gulf and the West

governor appointed by the Crown and assisted by an executive and later a
legislative council. While important in itself, the change of status was perhaps

even more significant because of the fresh impetus it gave to the efforts which,
under Colonial Office stimulus, had been going on for some years before 1937
to create a closer, even symbiotic, relationship between Aden and the protec­

torate states of the hinterland. It had been recognized from the start that the
policy could not succeed if these states were left, as by and large they had been
left, in their natural condition of turbulence and lawlessness. They would have

to be tamed, and British control exerted over them, in fact and not just in
name. There were other reasons in the 1930s for making British authority
effective in the hinterland. To the west the imam of Yemen, despite his

apparent acknowledgement of the frontier between his country and the Aden
protectorate laid down in a treaty concluded with the British government in
1934, still asserted claims to paramountcy over the protectorate tribes and
rulers. To the north Ibn Saud, having consolidated his authority over the

northern half of Arabia, was endeavouring to extend his southern frontiers as
far south as he could. With these considerations in mind, the authorities in
Aden pushed forward the work of pacification in the protectorate during the

1930s. It was slow work, since neither the men nor the funds were available to
make more rapid progress, and in any case the task of persuading the tribes to
forgo their simple pleasures of blood-letting and rapine was a delicate one,

calling for much skill, patience and tact. For administrative convenience the
protectorate was divided into western and eastern regions: a British political
agent was stationed in each and made responsible to the governor at Aden for

the implementation of the pacification policy.
The process continued after the Second World War along the lines laid down
before 1939. Advisory treaties were concluded with the rulers of the couple of
dozen sultanates, amirates and shaikhdoms that composed the two protec­

torates, and political officers were appointed to supervise the implementation
of the treaties. Local security forces were created, either for service throughout

the hinterland, like the Aden Protectorate Levies raised in 1928, or to police
particular regions, like the Hadrami Bedouin Legion raised in 1939, or to keep
the peace in their own districts, like the tribal guards. The rulers were kept to
the observance of their obligations by the judicious distribution or withholding

of government support and favours, especially in the provision of money and
arms, the two commodities most needed by the rulers to retain the fickle
allegiance of their unruly subjects. Efforts were also made to reform the

daulahs, or tribal councils, upon which the hereditary rulers relied for advice
and support and which often, in the case of an incompetent or feeble ruler,
ruled in his stead. As instruments of government thedaulahs were at first sight

inefficient, arbitrary and corrupt; but they were effective in controlling the
restless tribesmen, for they were, along with the rulers themselves, the source
of patronage and protection, and in any case they were the only form of political