Page 145 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

the present legal position 83
protected States,1 the Gulf States are the only remaining British pro­
tected States for the purposes of this Order. Hood Phillips describes
these states as ‘sovereign states leaving only their foreign affairs in
the hands of the Crown’.2
The fundamental difference between the Shaikhdoms and the
various British protectorates and protected States described above is
that, unlike the latter, the former remained internally independent
from British control. The governments of the Shaikhdoms arc, as
explained in the Introduction, headed by absolute local Rulers who
reserve in their persons the power to make laws by proclamations
and to administer, through representatives appointed by themselves,
justice, police and other various functions of government. The
British Government, which has no representation in the local adminis­
tration of the Shaikhdoms, exercises no power of legislation over
persons in the Shaikhdoms, other than those subject to the jurisdiction
of British Courts. However, the British Resident in the Gulf advises
the Rulers from time to time on certain governmental matters when
his advice is sought. But the Rulers are, in theory, free to accept or
reject his advice on matters affecting administration over their own
subjects.3

not so much the source of British power over the territory as the recognition by
the native chiefs of the authority assumed by the Crown’. Under the Aden Protec­
torate Order in Council, 1937, the British Governor of the Aden Colony is at the
same time Governor of the Protectorate. The Crown, according to this Order,
reserves the ‘power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the
Protectorate’. It is noteworthy that Orders in Council applying to African protec­
torates contain similar provisions to this Order.
On the legal status of Aden Protectorate, sec Robbins, op. cit. pp. 700-7;
Liebcsny, Herbert J., ‘International Relations of Arabia: The Dependent Areas',
The Middle East Journal, vol. 1 (1947), pp. 153-5; Hurewitz, International Concilia­
tion, op. cit., p. 217; Brinton, Revue Egyptienne, op. cit.; The Aden Protectorate
Order in Council, 1937, S.R. & O. and S.I. vol. VIII (Revised to 30 December
1948), p. 148.
The former Aden Protectorate was declared on 30 November 1967 a fully
independent stale under the name ‘The Republic of South Yemen'. For the legal
developments of its status before independence, see the Treaty of Friendship and
Protection between the United Kingdom . . . and the Federation of Arab
Amiratcs of the South, 11 February 1959, Cmnd. No. 665. This Treaty, establishing
a Federation under the protection of the United Kingdom, provides for the
development of the States within the Federation into ‘an economically and politic­
ally independent State in friendly relations with the United Kingdom’. See ibid.
1 The independence of the Federation of Malay was declared on 15 August 1957.
Sec The Federation of Malay Independence Act, 1957: Report of the Federation of
Malay Constitutional Proposals for the Federation of Malay (1957), Cmnd. 210.
2 Phillips, O. Hood, The Constitutional Law of Great Britain and the Common­
wealth, 2nd cd. (1957), pp. 646-8.
3 See Chapter 1.