'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎26r] (56/180)

41
V
Dhabi restoring all the vessels which he had captured since the beginning of the
war and the Shaikh of Sharjah withdrawing his blockade.
The peace was not of long duration. A foray in Qasimi territory by Manasir
Bedouins, dependent on Abu Dhabi, led to retaliation by the seizure upon the
pearl banks of ten Bani Yas boats, together with their crews of 80 men and pearls
to the value of Rs. 4,000. This rupture having obliged the Shaikhs to withdraw
their subjects from the banks, a penalty severely felt by both, Shaikh Khalifah
of Abu Dhabi was persuaded to send his father Shaikh Shakhbiit as an envoy to
Sharjah with proposals of peace, and a stable treaty was at length arranged. In
regard to Bani Yas domiciled at Dibai it was settled that they should henceforth
be regarded as subjects of Sharjah.
The exhausting war which we have just described, perhaps the most
persistently waged of any that ever occurred between Shaikhs of the Pirate Coast,
had undoubtedly an excellent effect in preparing the way for the conclusion of the
first Maritime Truce in 1835.
PERIOD FROM THE FIRST MARITIME TRUCE TO THE
PERPETUAL TREATY OF PEACE, 1835-53.
The Maritime Truce and Restrictive Line, 1835-36.
The insufficiency of the General Treaty of Peace for the purpose of main
taining security at sea was now fully apparent; for it did not prohibit regular
maritime warfare, and experience had shown that in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. such warfare
must usually be expected to degenerate into indiscriminate piracy.
The need of further restrictions seems to have been felt even by the chiefs
themselves. The Shaikh of Sharjah, in 1827, and the Shaikh oi Bahrain, in 1828,
argued earnestly that under Article No. 4 of the Treaty the British Government
were bound to prevent hostilities at sea, whatever their nature^ among the
pacificated Arabs; but the reception by the British authorities of this suggestion
was necessarily, from the wording of the Treaty, unfavourable. The attempt to
enforce the provisions relating to ships" papers, it may here be remarked, had long
been abandoned as impracticable; and in other respects, as we have seen, the
Treaty had been found ambiguous, if not unworkable.
The British Government were as yet unwilling to assume responsibility for the
prevention of all warfare at sea, especially as they foresaw that interference might
disturb the balance of power between maritime principalities and others ol which
the power was chiefly military; and in 1834 the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. expressly ruled
that it was inexpedient, even at the invitation of the petty Arab States, to assume
any sort of protectorship or arbitral authority over them. Nevertheless the British
authorities, while they continued to regard themselves as in strictness merely the
head of a naval confederacy for the suppression of piracy, exerted all their influence
on the side of peace, and for a time even made it a rule to treat as piracy all
aggressions committed on the pearl banks during the annual fishery; they insisted
also that the requirements of the Treaty of Peace should be observed even by such
Arab principalities as were not parties to it, such as those ol Qatif and Kuwait.
These being the circumstances and the views of the principal parties. Captain
S. Hennell, the Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , seized the opportunity of the
settlement with the Bani Yas to assemble some of the principal Shaikhs or their
agents at Basidu, where, after an unavailing attempt had been made to adjust their
claims and counter-claims, it was proposed by Captain Hennell that they should
agree to a Maritime Truce to cover the season of the approaching pearl fishery.
This suggestion having met with general acceptance, a more formal meeting
was held at the Bushehr Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. on the 21st August 1835, and here a document
was sealed by or on behalf of the Shaikhs of Sharjah, Dibai, Ajman and Abu
Dhabi, whereby they bound themselves to observe an inviolable truce from the
21st of May to the 21st of November of the same year, during which period all
claims should remain in abeyance; to afford redress for any refraction of the truce
by their respective subjects; and, in case of any aggression being committed upon
their subjects, not to retaliate, but to report the matter to the British political or
naval authorities. The Resident on his part was careful to explain to the parties,
Failure of
the Treaty
of 1820 to
establish
absolute
security.
The first
Maritime
Truce. 1835.