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victim to civilisation : he was given an injection at the local
hospital with an inadequately sterilised needle and succumbed to
septicaemia. Had he not run away he might be happily herding
camels in Qatar to this day - or, more likely, driving a taxi!
Reading this at the close of the 20th century you
that the British authorities should have
goings-on, but it should be remembered that
at the time had no right to interfere in the
may be appal 1ed
tolerated such
British India
affairs of the
Shaikhs and their subjects on land. We did, in deference to
world opinion, issue 'manumission certificates ' to slaves who
came to the office and asked for them, but we had no treaty right
to do so. (Usually this only occurred when the members of a
slave family were divided up amongst the sons of a deceased
owner). It was a matter of pride for slave-owners to feed and
clothe their slaves well, and, as there was usually very little
work for them to do, they had a fairly easy life.
In fact, it was not unknown for one who had been manumitted to
come to the Political Officer - after trying unsuccessfully for a
few weeks to earn his living as a free man - and ask if it were
possible to arrange for his return to slavery! In the end it was
economics more than world opinion that abolished slavery - they
just weren't worth keeping.
The agreements on which the Government of India's relations with
the Shaikhs were based were the Maritime Truces, started in 1835
with annual agreements that there should be no fighting at sea
during the four months of the pearl-diving season. In 1843 these
were replaced by a 10 year truce ; and in 1853 by a Perpetual
Truce, and from being known as "the Pirate Coast" the area was
renamed "the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ." The Rulers had also agreed not to
transport slaves by sea and to have no dealings with foreign
powers. Apart from that they could do what they liked, and the
Government of India had absolutely no desire to increase its
involvement or committments in the area.
But we had, as a result of the war-time shortages, become
inescapably involved with the supply of essential food-stuffs to
the Gulf States. They were 'under our shadow' and we could not
see them starve.
However we felt no such obligation to the Persians on the other
shore of the Gulf, with the result that the price of
tood-grains, sugar, and tea on the Persian shore was several
times that on the Arab Shore. The temptation to smuggle it over
to Persia and sell it for a vast profit was obvious and we simply
hadn't the administrative staff to see that this was prevented
Ihe Khan Sahib had organised a system (and I take off my hat to
him for doing it) whereby every single shopkeeper on the coast
sent in a monthly return - hand written in Arabic - of all his
sales of 'rationed' foods.