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232 The Origins of the United Arab Emirates

freedom and of aspiration to succeed in life. This is what we understand
as civilisation and what we call progress lies in the changes of structure
in the social organism which entail such consequences’ (The Persian
Gulf p. 272).
35. A former Political Agent at Bahrain gave his views thus: ‘Conditions
there [on the 1 racial Coast] are not unlike those on our own border
in the fifteenth century—indeed, I have found a study of early Scottish
history invaluable in helping me to understand their somewhat mediaeval
ways’ (Lieutenant-Colonel G. Dalycll of the Binns (formerly Lt-Col.
Loch), ‘The Persian Gulf’, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society,
xxv (1938)).
36. ‘As a jealous sheikh veils his favourite wife, so the British authorities
shroud conditions in the Arab slates [of the Gull] in such thick
mystery that ill-disposed propagandists might almost be excused for
thinking that something dreadful is going on there’ (A. R. Lindt,
‘Politics in the Persian Gulf’, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society
xxvi (1939) p. 622).
37. ‘The whole affair reminds one of the old Scotch, or North Country,
ballads Incidentally, it shows that in spite of an air route, air
facilities, and the general opening up of the Trucial Coast, the folk
there are still quite “primitive”’ (L/P&S/12/3710, PZ1970/35, Political
Resident to India Office, 28 Feb 1935).
38. L/P&S/12/3747, PZ7199/34, Political Resident to Government of India,
16 Nov 1934.
39. Ibid.
40. With the granting of oil concessions to American companies by Bahrain
in 1932 and Saudi Arabia in 1933, American commercial interests
in the Gulf became a force regarded with continual fear and suspicion
by the British authorities. Japanese trade interests in Bahrain and
Kuwait were particularly strong; and by 1938, when Bahrain was
the only oil-producing state in the Gulf, Japanese trade held the predomi­
nant share of the Bahrain market. (L/P&S/i 2/3797, PZ5638/38, Political
Agent Bahrain to Government of India, 6 Apr 1938).
41 • L/P&S/12/3747, PZ1365/35, Air Ministry to India Office, 26 Feb 1935.
42. Ibid., PZ2853/35, Government of India to India Office, 22 Apr 1935
(telegram in three parts).
43. Ibid., minutes of Forty-Second Meeting of Middle-East (Official) Sub­
committee of CID, 24 Sep 1935 (copy).
44. Ibid., PZ2853/35, Political Resident to India Office, 21 Feb 1935
(extract).
45. L/P&S/12/1990, PZ4115/35, Political Resident to India Office, 14 June
1935 (telegram).
46. L/P&S/12/3747, PZ2367/38, Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident,
22 Mar 1938. For information on secret-service funds and how they
were allocated for the Gulf Shaykhdoms, see R/15/2/922.
A.1 Ibid. PZ4111/38, Political Resident to India Office, 19 May 1938.
?8 Ibid’ PZi724/39, Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident, 5 Feb
4 1939.' Enclosed in Political Resident to Government of India. u Feb ,939.
49. Ibid.