Page 89 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

RELATIONS WITH THU TRUCIAL SHAIKHDOMS 27
stituting piracy. These include ‘the putting of men to death after they
have given up their arms’, and ‘the carrying off of slaves, men, women,
or children from the coasts of Africa or elsewhere, and the transport­
ing them in vessels’. In practice, Article 9 was interpreted as pro­
hibiting no more than the kidnapping of slaves, and was regarded as
stopping short of prohibiting the slave traffic in general. Indeed the
selling and buying of slaves was carried on with impunity even after
the signing of the treaty of 1820.1
Article 3 prescribed a particular flag to be carried by the friendly
Arabs by land and sea as a symbol of their adherence to the treaty.
Article 4 dealt with the status of the Shaikhs in the following
terms:
The pacificatcd tribes shall all of them continue in their former relation
with the exception that they shall not fight with each other, and the flag
shall be a symbol of this only and nothing further.
It is clear that the object of this provision was to assure the signa­
tories that the British Government did not entertain any designs to
annex the territories of the Shaikhs.
Article 5 referred to procedural matters connected with the obser­
vance of the treaty, such as the carrying of a register by each Arab
vessel containing the necessary information regarding the ship, its
owner, size, destination, etc. Articles 6 and 10 authorised the British
Residency in the Gulf to act as a maritime police in the waters of the
Gulf for the purpose of administration and observance of the condi­
tions of the treaty, and to settle all matters of dispute arising between
the friendly Arabs adhering to the treaty. Article 7 referred to mea­
sures which should be taken by the friendly tribes in conjunction with
the British authorities in order to prevent the other tribes, not being
parties to the treaty, from committing piracy. Finally Article 11 en­
joined the other tribes who were not originally parties to the treaty to
subscribe to it.2
The enforcement of this treaty gave rise to a number of problems:
(a) The attitude of the Government of Bombay towards the Treaty
When the British authorities in India received a copy of the treaty,
which was signed on behalf of the East India Company by Major-
General Grant Keir, they expressed their dissatisfaction with its
1 In 1839, a further treaty was concluded between the British Government and
the Trucial Shaikhs in order to cover the defects arising from the treaty of 1820.
The first and the second articles of the treaty of 1839 allowed the British authorities
in the Gulf to seize and confiscate any vessel found ‘engaged in the slave trade’. The
third article prohibited the sale of ‘males and females whether young or old’, of
the Somali tribes, and considered such dealing as piracy. Sec Aitchison, pp. 249-50.
2 For the adherence in 1820 of Bahrain to the General Treaty of Peace, see
p. 31 below.