'Extracts from Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia by J G Lorimer CIE, Indian Civil Service' [‎27r] (58/180)

43
The idea underlying the Maritime Truces was, on the part of the British
authorities, the prevention of piracy, as distinct from its punishment under the
Treaty of 1820; and the truces were regarded as a natural corollary to the
suppression of crime at sea, inasmuch as they provided a guarantee for the free
exercise of other maritime callings by tribes formerly piratical. The result of the
truces, within the limits which bounded them, was beneficial in the highest degree.
The danger, at times apprehended, of hostilities at sea between a signatory and a
non-signatory power never took actual shape; and from engaging as allies in the
naval wars of non-sigantory powers, as one or more of them might have done
upon opposite sides,—this being a case not provided for in their engagements,—
the Trucial Shaikhs were firmly, and successfully dissuaded by the "local British
authorities.
A point more than once debated in the early years of the trucial system was
the proper treatment thereunder of attacks by land parties upon the crews of
fishing boats drawn up in creeks or backwaters, often at a distance from their own
port. It was held by the Resident, in whose view the Shaikhs eventually acquiesced,
that such attacks were a form of land warfare and as such were not prohibited by
the terms of the Maritime Truce.
Trivial cases of aggression, chiefly at the pearl banks, by boat upon boat were
still not infrequent; they were almost invariably due to the absconding of indebted
divers or other pearl operatives from the jurisdiction of one Shaikh to that of
another, and they generally took the form of an attempt to capture the debtor,
or to recover the amount of his debt, from the boat or the tribe to which he had
attached himself. The settlement of such cases was felt to be a delicate matter,
for enforcement of extradition by the British authorities might involve a high degree
of interference on their part in local affairs and might destroy an important safe
guard against oppression of their subjects by the Shaikhs. Endeavours were
accordingly made to induce the Shaikhs to come to an understanding on the
subject, independently of any guarantee by the British Government for its
observance; but they failed, partly because of the reluctance of the Arab to
surrender in any circumstances the fugitive who has taken refuge with him, and
partly in consequence of an idea entertained by each chief that his own government
was the most attractive to strangers and would be the chief loser by a check upon
migration. For the solution of this difficulty, finally attained in 1879, the time
was not yet ripe.
The principal infractions of the Treaty of Peace of 1820 and of the Maritime
Truce at the time in force may now be placed on record; but in doing so it is
necessary to distinguish between the two classes, for all aggressions at sea were now
equally included in the piratical category. The much less serious character, on the
whole, of the offences committed during this period is a clear testimony to the
progress made, under the Treaty of Peace alone, in the years preceding.
In 1837 an ordinary piracy was committed on a boat belonging to Bandar
'Abbas by inhabitants of Hairah village; but the Shaikh of Sharjah, whose subjects
the pirates were, of his own accord compelled them to make restitution.
In 1838 two Qasimi subjects, Sultan-bin-Sohar and Muhammad-bin-Sohar,
brothers, attacked and plundered a Kharag boat at the northern end of the Persian
Gulf, killing several persons; and they also looted, in the vicinity of Ras-al-Hadd,
a vessel belonging to the Batinah coast. Sultan, having been captured at Lingeh,
was delivered over by the British Resident in the Persian Gull to the Shaikh of
the Ka'ab, whose interest in the case will be explained further on; but Muhammad
and a Nakhudawho had been associated with him in his misdeeds, on their surrender
by Shaikh Sultan-bin-Saqar after severe treatment at Sharjah, were released by
the British authorities with a slight additional punishment. Also in 1838, a
Baqarah belonging to Khaburah in the 'Oman Sultanate was stealthily pursued
by a Baqarah of Dibai to an anchorage at Barkah and there, at night but not
unawares, attacked. Of nine men on board the Khaburah vessel, six were wounded
and two subsequently died; but blood-money and other compensation were
exacted in full from the aggressors by the British authorities through the Shaikh
of Dibai.
In 1840 some petty controversies took place on the pearl banks, and elsewhere
at sea, between subjects of Abu Dhabi and Dibai and between subjects of Sharjah
and Abu Dhabi; but they were unaccompanied by bloodshed or extreme violence
and were adjusted by the" Resident under the terms of the Maritime Truce. More
serious was the plunder by Bin-'Askar, a member of the rebellious Qubaisat section
of the Bani Yas, in his flight with a number of companions from Abu Dhabi to
Working
of the
periodical
maritime
truces.
Cases of
piracy and
breaches of
the Maritime
Truce,
1835-53.
1837.
1838.
1840.
48533
H