Page 88 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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1 26 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
of the Qawasim, and induced them to negotiate a further treaty with
: the East India Company.1
; i
The General Treaty of Peace, 8 January 18202
The object of the General Treaty of 1820 was stated to be the ‘pacifi­
cation of the Gulf’. The first Article provided for the ‘cessation of
plunder and piracy by land and sea' on the part of the parties to the
Agreement. The second Article defined ‘piracy’ and ‘acknowledged
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war’, distinguishing between them as follows:
An acknowledged war is that which is proclaimed, avowed and ordered
by government against government, and the killing of men and taking of
goods without proclamation, avowal, and the order of a government, is
plunder and piracy.
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This Article also confined the application of the conditions of the
treaty only to those hostile acts committed by land or sea in the way
of plunder and piracy:
;
If any individual of the people of the Arabs contracting shall attack any
: that pass by land or sea of any nation whatsoever in the way of plunder and
piracy and not of acknowledged war, he shall be accounted an enemy of all
mankind and shall be held to have forfeited both money and goods.
:
It appears that the distinction drawn by this Article left the door
open to the parties to declare or carry on war with each other by sea
provided that this was ‘proclaimed or avowed by government’.
Unfortunately, therefore, this distinction did not serve its purpose
and under the guise of ‘acknowledged war’ many piratical acts were
committed, especially during the pearl-fishing season.3
In order to understand Article 2 fully, it must be read in conjunction
with Articles 8 and 9 which provide further examples of acts con-

1 Aitchison, pp. 197-8; Lorimer, pp. 360-1.
2 For an English translation of the original Arabic copy of the Treaty of Peace
I of 1820, signed by Major-General W. Grant Kcir with the Arab tribes of Ras
al-Khaimah, see F.O. 60/17, January 1820. For the text of the Treaty, sec also
Aitchison, pp. 245-8.
This Treaty was adhered to by all the tribes of the Trucial Coast which now
form the seven Trucial Shaikhdoms.
3 Aitchison, p. 199. To bring an end to this confusion, the British Government
induced the Shaikhs concerned to conclude, in 1835, a maritime truce, the object
of which was the cessation of all hostile activities, piratical or warlike, by sea for a
fixed period. This Truce of 1835 was renewed in 1837 and 1843 until finally on
4 May 1853 it was replaced by a permanent treaty known as the Treaty of Peace
of 24 August 1853. This new treaty provided for the complete cessation of hostile
acts by sea on the part of the parties subscribing to it. It also provided that in the
event of any aggression being inflicted ‘by sea’ by one party to the treaty on the
other, the injured party should not retaliate, but refer the matter for the arbitration
of the British Resident in the Arabian Gulf, who would cause reparation to be made
to the victim. For this treaty, see ibid., pp. 252-3.