Robin Wilton's esoterica

Editorial note: first, my apologies... this is long overdue for publication. Second, I know some people have been following this installment by installment, and would like to see the whole paper in one piece. I will upload it and add an entry to the 'Bookworm' area in the right-hand column of my blog page, so you can find it in future. And if someone should persuade my father to commit further reminiscences to paper, rest assured I'll try and get syndication rights! ;^) RW by John Wilton Part 8 of 8

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But to return to the planned action in Kalba: I set out again with the Levies while the Political Resident sailed from Bahrain in the Royal Navy Sloop on duty in the Gulf at the time with the intention of appearing off-shore in the early morning as I and my escort debouched from the mountains. The Anson would put in a brief appearance overhead. Meanwhile I had sent a letter to the usurping shaikh announcing my impending arrival (of which he was certainly well aware) and expressing the hope that I would not find him still in Kalba when I arrived. He got the message and departed for Saudi Arabia via the Jebel al Akhdar. The military part of the episode thus successfully concluded, the Political Resident came ashore in the neighbouring Shaikhdom of Fujairah, where Shaikh Muhammad al Sharqi had for many years wished to be recognised as one of the Trucial Rulers. The British Government decided that the most satisfactory arrangement for Kalba would be to re-unite it with Sharjah, as it had once been part of the Qasimi territories; and the vacancy thus created in the ranks of the Trucial Rulers could then conveniently be filled by the accession of Fujairah. At a simple ceremony the Ruler of Fujairah signed the Treaty undertakings required and was formally admitted to the club which twenty years later was to become the United Arab Emirates. I look back on this early adventure in my diplomatic career with particular pleasure because it must have been one of the last occasions on which such a piece of benevolent gunboat diplomacy marginally extended the bounds of "the Raj" - thereafter it was all contraction. An enjoyable part of the celebrations that followed was the luncheon prepared in honour of the, occasion. In order to pay proper respect to the susceptibilities of his exalted visitors, Shaikh Muhammad had decided to serve the meal at a table and he instructed his dhow-builder to provide one. A solid teak table was promptly erected in the majlis*, but as the dhow-builder had little experience in such matters it filled the entire room except for a narrow 18 inch space between it and the four walls. Also Shaikh Muhammad had been able to round up only five chairs (with seats inscribed mysteriously in poker-work "Welcome to Czechoslovakia"). The top brass edged their way cautiously to the head of the table where the chairs were placed. The rest of the entourage --- the Levies and the Ruler's guards --- then sat down on the ground as was their custom and disappeared from sight (except for the occasional turban and the muzzles of their rifles stuffed with flannel against the dust) but also from reach of the lunch on the table. Slowly they rose to their feet and took their meal standing. In Fujairah now there are tourist resort hotels and a casino and the treasury is no longer largely dependent on the production and sale of an endless series of artistic postage stamps - a niche industry whose possibilities Shaikh Muhammad had been one of the first in the area to appreciate and exploit. Shortly after the conclusion of the Kalba episode I was posted to Cairo and departed not without regrets but relieved that our five month old son would be spared the rigours of a summer in the Gulf. [Editorial footnote: *majlis is a term used both for a legislative/decision-making meeting or body, and the room in which it convenes. A majlis can range from what is, effectively, a parliamentary assembly on a national scale down to the formal opportunity for individuals to raise grievances before their local 'feudal' landowner. In the latter case, a majlis might, for example, be the forum in which a small-holder or a nomadic herdsman might seek resolution of a dispute over access to a watering-hole. The majlis rooms I have seen were mostly very simple: a rectangular room with low seating around most of the walls, each seat being provided with arm-rests so that one can conveniently sit in comfort and be served with coffee (plain or cardamom). --- RW]