Page 176 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

142 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

Ol course, much of this complexity is owing to the shifting
pattern of tribal alliances, which have always determined the extent
of a ruler’s territory. In the early days of oil exploration, the
rulers had little appreciation of the need for fixed limits to their
territory or of the significance that these would have; and, while
the British authorities, pressed by the oil companies, were attempting
to evolve some form of policy, no attempt was made to enlighten
them. Moreover, the process of policy-forming worked extremely
slowly and never achieved any finality. An examination of the
means chosen to deal with the problem will reveal not only the
bewilderment of the British political authorities, who were often
clearly at a loss, but also their deliberate failure to take into
account the difficulties that some of the decisions taken might cause.
This is best illustrated by the outcome of the interdepartmental
meeting that was held in London in February 1936 to examine
the problem, after Petroleum Concessions had been given the official
go-ahead to negotiate for concessions. The decision then taken was
that, in defining the extent of the individual shaykhdoms, such
commercial agreements as were concluded should simply carry the
vague formula ‘the territories of the Sheikh’. There was, of course
no precedent to which the India Office could refer, for Britain’s
interest in the shaykhdoms of the Gulf had previously been almost
wholly confined to their coastal regions, and there had never before
been any need for precision about the ownership of the hinterland.
But the formula ‘the territories of the Sheikh’ was not clear
enough for Petroleum Concessions. It wanted to know precisely,
in order to be able accurately to assess the value of the commercial
agreements to be negotiated, the extent of each shaykhdom and
the amount of the hinterland that its ruler effectively controlled.
The company washed to explore the hinterland and needed access
there, either through the rulers who claimed control of it or by
direct approach to the local tribes. Fowle considered the company’s
needs and put forward a plan to give it what it desired. The
Political Agent in Bahrain would work out, by consultation with
the rulers and the sultan of Muscat, who claimed what territory;
then a plan would be devised to test the standing of the claims
in the light of effective control. Fowle admitted that an effective
plan would be difficult to work out, and suggested the setting
up of a test case. The company would ask the accepted ruler
of an inland area to address the local shaykh there; if the local
shaykh proved to be difficult, it would be up to the ruler to
use ‘force, bribery, or diplomacy, or all combined’ to influence
his subordinate.3 Not thoroughly convinced of the practicability
of Fowle’s plan, the India Office temporarily shelved the issue
bv instructing Petroleum Concessions not to explore the hinterland