Page 116 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

6 Establishment of the

Air-Route: Test of
Imperial Policy

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Almost immediately after World War I, the British Government
recognised the need for an organised civil and military air-route
linking Egypt, Iraq and India. As the air-route began to take shape,
the Arabian shores of the Gulf - Bahrain, the Trucial Coast and
Muscat, in particular assumed a new and fundamental importance
as the essential link for British air communications. We have already
noted the many discussions in London and Delhi on the possibility of
extending British rule in the Gulf in order to establish the air-route
and safeguard its security; we have also noted the repeated decisions
that the maintenance of the status quo was sufficient. In the case of the
Trucial Coast, the British presence was remarkably limited, and yet
within a short period of time the region was drawn into a scries of
agreements that provided the British Government with all it wanted
for the new route to India. Although the role played by certain
individuals, such as the Political Residents and the Residency Agent
in Sharjah, was central to the fulfilment of imperial interests, the
I
individuals themselves ultimately relied on British political supremacy
in the Gulf. This was constantly reinforced by the British making it
impossible for any other power to establish itself in the area, and
by the control that Indian merchants exercised over trade, shipping
and ports. In the final analysis, it was British sea power that held the
Gulf at its mercy, and nowhere was this better understood than on the
Trucial Coast, whose people were essentially seafarers and well knew \
the meaning of naval force.
The first Royal Air Force flight between Iraq and India took
place in December 1918; it went along the Persian shore of the
Gulf at a time when the Persian Government had little control

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