Page 116 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

106 Arabian Studies IV
Government’s pursuance of socialist policies on the island led to
the nationalization of even the smallest shops and fishing boats
which antagonized the islanders and so, during the frontier
incidents between the two Yemens in the autumn of 1972, the
.slanders requested the Y.A.R. Government to take over the
administration of the island. This was done, since when Kamaran
returned to the rule of $an‘a’ for the first time since 1832.129 The
stability and future sovereignty of the island can only be settled if
plans for the unification of the two Yemens materialize so that the
two states have no longer counter claims against each other over
the sovereignty of Kamaran.

APPENDIX

During the 19th century a rumour developed that Kamaran island
had been included in the marriage dowry of Catherine of Braganza
to Charles II of England. This has been taken up more recently by
Yemeni writers.130 There is no evidence for such statements.
According to the Portuguese Quadro Elementar das Relagiones e
Diplomaticas de Portugal,131 only Bombay and Tangiers were
included in the dowry. This is confirmed by de la Cl£re in his
Histoire Generate de Portugal.132
Following the British occupation of Kamaran in 1915, the
Government of India attempted to establish the truth or otherwise
of statements in a number of publications of the previous century
that Kamaran had fallen under British occupation in the
nineteenth century. In the course of its research the Government of
India unearthed a number of books which pronounced that
Kamaran had indeed been a British possession: the outcome of the
Government’s research was that Britain had neither claimed nor
occupied Kamaran before 1915. The present writer also concurs in
this conclusion.133 Further evidence comes from Percy Badger, who
reported in a memorandum that the Turks ‘could fairly claim’ the
seaboard from Suez to al-Mukha in 1872.134
It is perhaps worth recording those publications in which
Kamaran is erroneously stated to have been British territory.
(a) Kilpert, Graf and Bruhn’s Hand Atlas, 42nd edition, issued in
1856-64, in which Kamaran is marked as a British possession on
the map of Africa.
(b) Vivien de St. Martin, in his Nouvelle Dictionnaire de
Gdographie Universelle, 1879, says of Kamaran ‘Les Anglais en
ont pris possession depuis quelques ann6es.’
(c) La Grande Encyclopedic, VIII, with a British Museum date

i