ABSTRACT
In the mid-1950s, the Governor of Aden, Sir Tom Hickinbotham, had championed the idea of rationalizing the disparate territories of the hinterland. His specific proposal centred on the creation of two federations in the Eastern and Western Aden Protectorates. The incorporation of Aden colony into the British-sponsored federation of South Arabian states was an unhappy constitutional experiment. Writing to Denis Healey, the Political Officer in the state of Dhala, Hugh Walker, warned that the British-sponsored Federation would fail unless it had the backing of the people. While Britain was a consistent supporter of bringing the small Gulf States together, the emergence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the seven Trucial States essentially derived from the initiative of Sheikh Zaid of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashid of Dubai. In a fitting epitaph on the failure of British policy in South Arabia, D. J. McCarthy lamented that 'The whole Federation was artificially created as an instrument of British policy'.
