IOR/R/15/1/233

The contents of subject file 5/198 II relate to four kidnapping and slave trade incidents that occurred on the Trucial Coast between 1938 and 1941. In one incident (folios 8-22), the boat of the suspected trader, used to transport slaves, had its rudder and sail removed by the Shaikh of Dubai's men. In another incident (folios 29-42) in 1941 the Political Agent in Muscat (Captain Tom Hickinbotham) wrote to the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Prior) about a slave trader known to be a subject of the Shaikh of Fujairah. Since the Shaikh claimed independence from his overlord the Shaikh of Sharjah in 1901, Hickinbotham wrote, if the British Government was to recognise the Shaikh of Fujairah's independence, it would be the case that no slave treaties or agreements had been signed between him and the British Government, making the retrieval of slaves or suppression of the slave trade in the Shaikh's dominions more difficult.

The correspondence in the volume originally from subject file 5/199 (folios 49-65) relates to the purchase and export of slaves from the Trucial Coast by an identified slave trader. In September 1935 the Residency Agent at Sharjah ('Abd al-Razzaq Razuqi) wrote to the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Loch), informing him that female slaves had been secretly bought in the area, to be shipped to Qatar and onwards to Saudi Arabia. The Residency Agent revoked the travel papers for the man, but this did not prevent him absconding by boat. The contents of the volume that were originally from subject file 5/200 (folios 67-77) are pages from a Mecca newspaper, Umm-al-Qura, published 2 October 1936, pronouncing the restrictions on the slave trade in Saudi Arabia. A typewritten English translation follows the Arabic newspaper sheets.