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12 The Trucial States in

I939; The Dawn of a
New

By a curious coincidence, T. C. W. Fowle retired at almost precisely
the moment when the guns of World War II first began to fire,
heralding the end of the Raj. No successor of his was ever to
wield the same power as he had had, for the outcome of the
war radically altered the British position and opened the way to
the dismemberment of the British Empire. The most significant
element of this process, which began almost immediately after peace
had been restored, was, of course, the independence of India, follow­
ing which the British Government of India ceased to exist and
the conduct of British relations with the Gulf states was transferred
to the Foreign Office in London. The officers of the Indian Political
Service were replaced by diplomats from London, and gradually
the entire character of Anglo-Arab relations in the Gulf began
to change. The climax was reached in January 1968, when the
Labour Government in London announced the end of its East
of Suez defence policy and, with it, the total withdrawal of British
forces from the Gulf by the end of 1971.
In 1939 the Trucial Coast was already in the process of transforma­
tion, though the evolution of the shaykhdoms was to continue
at a slow pace until the 1960s, when it was ascertained that the
region contained vast petroleum resources. It was during the inter-war
years, however, that the shaykhdoms began to acquire their present
character and their present enormous significance in world affairs.
The situation was diversified by a number of non-political develop­
ments, the most important of which was the decline of the pearl
trade as a result of the world depression of the 1930s and the
introduction of the Japanese cultured pearl. This decline had a

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