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94 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

the tank. Alter this first meeting, the Resident was to return Sultan’s
call at his brother Muhammad’s house; but the ruler never appeared,
much to the anger of the Resident, who was kept waiting in
vain for thirty minutes. Matters were made worse when Barrett,
on leaving the house, ‘saw Shaikh Sultan arriving accompanied
by the young Shaikh of Umm al-Qawain, both walking very slowly,
followed by their guard.’.2
Barrett later wrote to Sultan demanding an apology for his rudeness
and showing his own anger by forcing the ruler to accept the
petrol barge anyway. Sultan duly sent his regrets, but refused to
accept the oil stores, which despite his protests arrived in a dhow,
which anchored in the creek of Ras al-Khaimah. Although Sultan
allowed the boat to remain there, he at first refused permission
for the petrol in it to be unloaded;3 later he relented on condition
that the supply would not be replenished. One of the reasons
he gave for his refusal to grant air facilities was that lie had
been deprived of Tunb island lighthouse1 dues and could not therefore
trust Britain to pay him for the fuel depot. This reason was totally
disregarded by Barrett, who viewed it as an attempt To draw
a red herring across the path’.
The RAF next wanted to substitute a petrol barge for the dhow,
so Barrett sent the Residency Agent to Ras al-Khaimah with a
friendly letter. Sultan was not at Ras al-Khaimah at the lime,
but ‘Isa discussed the question with Sultan’s brother Muhammad
and the notables of the shaykhdom. He found them ready to accept
the fuel barge, but unwilling to accede to anything more. When
Sultan returned, ‘Isa gave him the Resident’s letter, and with
the help of ‘Abd al-Rahman bin Sayf of Hamriyyah, who was
visiting Ras al-Khaimah, tried to persuade him to accept to grant
air facilities. Sultan refused; he claimed that it would place him
in a difficult position with those of his people who opposed the
idea. The Residency Agent regarded this reason as a mere excuse,
and claimed that the only opposition came from Sultan himself.5
‘Isa also reported that Sultan had threatened to leave Ras al-Khaimah
if his wishes were put aside.
It was Hugh Biscoc, Political Resident from November 1929,
who decided that it was time to push through a new, firm policy
if the air-route were to be effective. ‘I cannot help feeling that
it was perhaps a mistake to adopt towards these petty Shaikhs
so suppliant an attitude in the first instance.’6 He was convinced
that the moderation shown by the British authorities had been
mistaken for weakness; that the general feeling on the Coast that
Britain had become less powerful had been strengthened by the
assumption that the League of Nations was a new super-government

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