Page 111 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

Foreign Interventions and Occupations of Kamaran I. 101
during the 1906-7 pilgrimage season when a staff of forty was
employed on the island.88
In 1884 a British vice-consul was appointed to al-Hudaydah and
Kamaran. He was to reside on the island during the pilgrimage
season to ensure that Indian pilgrims undergoing quarantine were
well treated.89 A house was put at his disposition by the quarantine
authorities on the island in 1899.90
The establishment of the quarantine station greatly increased
the prosperity of the islanders. The island capital was transferred
from a village on the northern shore to the present Kamaran
Village91 and in 1898 the population was reported to be thriving.92
In the early twentieth century it was Germany’s turn to manifest
interest in Kamaran, requesting the establishment of a coaling
depot. The Sanitary Administration raised no objection providing
the depot was constructed at a place remote from the sanitary
installations. It was, however, finally built on one of the Farasan
Islands.93
At the same time the Turks themselves began to turn Kamaran
into a military base in 1902 when the Turkish naval authorities
built a slipway in the harbour for hauling up their small gun boats
and steam launches for repairs. The next year a dockyard and
arsenal were constructed.94

Kamaran during the Italian-Turkish War, 1911-12
When the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-12 spread to the Red Sea
Kamaran became one of the many theatres of operations.95 An
Italian cruiser patrolled the coast between Kamaran and Midi in
search of a Turkish gunboat squadron and anchored one night in
Kamaran Bay.96 At the end of March 1912 the Italians cut the
cable connecting Kamaran with the mainland and, the following
day, the blockade was extended so as to include al-Lul?ayyah,
Kamaran and $allf. Dhow traffic was stopped between the
mainland and Kamaran. Pilgrim vessels entering and leaving
Kamaran were compelled to be accompanied by an Italian naval
escort.97 With the signature of peace between the Belligerents on 17
October 1912 the Italian blockade of Kamaran ended.

The British occupation of Kamaran, 1915-67
Soon after the outbreak of the First World War Kamaran’s
sovereignty again cha'nged. When a Turkish expedition at ‘Aqabah
was reported to be placing floating mines in the Red Sea, Weakley
of the Foreign Office recommended that the islands of Kamaran,