Page 188 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

'54 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

I he aspect of British policy that caused him most difficulty was
the pressure on him to act against the slave trade and traffic
in arms. The measures he was forced to take against them did
! much to precipitate the rebelliousness of the ruling elite in 1938.
Although Dubai’s treaty with Britain did not expressly forbid the
sale of slaves, their importation was forbidden and domestic slaves
were entitled to manumission if they applied to the Agency at
Sharjah or at Bahrain. Between 1932 and 1936, the number of
slaves manumitted was very slight, but in 1937 and the early
part of 1938 rate of manumission grew to such an extent12 that
slave-owners in Dubai became highly concerned and directed their
anger at the Agency in Sharjah, which they threatened to attack.
In the case of the traffic in arms, Fowlc had become alarmed
at its growth in Dubai during the 1930s. Investigations showed
that the two people most involved were a Kuwaiti, Khalaf 'Ali
al-Zamani, and an Iranian, Rais Muhammad Rasul. The Resident
approached Shaykh Sa‘id on the matter when he visited him in
Dubai on 27 February 1938, and the ruler promised to have the
two men deported.13
The proposed deportations, coming as they did when the fear
of wholesale manumission was haunting slave-owners, caused serious
agitation. The Al-bu-Falasah, who held Sa‘id personally responsible
for both situations, angrily incited demonstrations against him on
14 March 1938. The outbreak was serious, so the sloop HMS Bideford,
which was on its way to Bombay, was diverted to Dubai, where
it lay offshore for three days. It carried a letter from Hugh Weight-
man, Political Agent in Bahrain, that announced his plans to visit
Dubai the following week; the Agent also informed Sa‘id that,
although the sloop was there to give him enough lime to assert
his own authority, there would be no interference.14 The shaykh
was reminded of his responsibility for British lives and property.
Owing to the presence of the sloop, the situation improved,
and on 18 March the sloop was able to leave. Fowlc then sent
a message to Dubai warning the inhabitants about the danger
of loss of lives or property of British subjects. He also sent a
message to all the Trucial Coast rulers: British policy regarding
slavery had not changed, and only those slaves who asked for
manumission would be entitled to it.15 The majlis met at Dubai
and passed two resolutions: first, Shaykh Sa‘id was to ask the
Resident to have manumitted slaves returned to their owners; second,
he was to ask the Resident to pardon the gun-runners, since he
had agreed to their deportation without consulting his people. If
the requests were not granted, the shaykh would not be allowed
to grant facilities for air travel or renew the civil air agreement
without first consulting his majlis. The Resident refused both petitions,