Page 51 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

The Aftermath of War: Perpetuation of Control 27

Kuwait signed in 1913,37 Bahrain in 191438 and the shaykhdoms
of the Trucial Coast in 1922.39

THE OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT: TITLE AND FUNCTION

The Political Resident in Bushire

Curzon referred to the Political Resident as the uncrowned king
of the Gulf. Certainly by 1900 the position had become one of
paramount importance and influence, and during Percy Cox’s tenure
(from 1904 to 1920) it gained much in power, diginity and authority.40
Much of this was owing to Cox himself, who gradually broke
down the suspicion with which the Resident had been regarded,
especially on the Trucial Coast; and he enjoyed great personal
popularity among the rulers and their people. His successors did
not, however, maintain the direct influence that he had cultivated,
and the Residency became increasingly remote to the Coast and
its inhabitants, particularly after World War I. This became so
acute that in 1929 a Resident who had just made a tour of the
Coast was startled to realise that not one of Cox’s successors was
known by name there.41
Strictly speaking, the decline can be seen to have set in during
the latter part of Cox’s tenure, and to have stemmed directly
from the Hyacinth incident of 1910, which did much to destroy
the position he had built, ruining the personal touch of the Resident
and alienating the position at the same time. The following years
did little to improve the situation. At the outbreak of the war,
the Resident became preoccupied with other matters and increasingly
lost touch with the Coast. After 1918, his despatch vessel was
withdrawn and his visits to the Coast became infrequent, usually
numbering only one or two a year, and lacking in the dignity
that had attended previous visits. The Resident was reduced to
travelling on a steamer of the British India Steam Navigation Com­
pany, which did little to enhance his prestige.42 The situation was
improved from 1930, when a yacht, the Patrick Stewart, was placed
at the disposal of the Resident for a large part of the year;43
this greatly cased the problems of mobility, which were eased still
further by the introduction of air travel.
But other problems existed. There were no direct telegraphic
communications between Bushire and the Trucial Coast; urgent
messages had to be sent to Henjam on the Persian coast and
then forwarded by means of special sailing arrangements. Other
correspondence was carried by the mail steamer, which until 1932
called only at Dubai, and then only once a fortnight. However,