The Sons of Sindbad

One of the last remaining foreign-flag enclaves on the continent of Asia*was erased last week. In the first international cash-for-territory deal since the U.S. paid $25 million for Denmark's Virgin Islands in 1917, the republic of Pakistan purchased the sun-blanched, 300-sq.-mi. peninsula of Gwadar (pop. 20,000) from the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. Price: $8,400,000 cash and a percentage of any oil ever found on Gwadar's rainless shores.

Gwadar, which in the Baluchi language means Gateway of Winds, has been a haven for Arab seamen since the fabled Sindbad the Sailor cruised its coasts. The place passed into the hands of the Sultans of Muscat and Oman in the 18th century when Syed, heir to the Muscat sultanate, tried to seize the throne, failed, and fled across the Arabian Sea to escape his father's wrath. Gwadar at that time belonged to the Khan of Kalat, who welcomed Syed in princely fashion and made him a handsome offer. "You can have the revenues of as much land as you can see," declared the Khan. The wily Syed shinned up the tallest date palm in sight and laid claim to everything on the horizon. Syed later made peace with his father, whom he succeeded. But he continued to collect Gwadar's revenues, and Gwadar passed into the possession of the sultanate.

Maidens & Dhows. Gwadar was then the haunt of pirates and pearl divers. Later, in the iQth century, its freebooters prospered by procuring black-eyed Persian maidens for sale in Arabia's slave markets. The British, lords of India and protectors of Muscat, ended this racket. Since World War II smuggling has been Gwadar's chief industry. As the new republics of Pakistan and India, trying to husband their precious foreign exchange, clapped stern restrictions on luxury imports, the enterprisers of Gwadar took to their dhows to keep Karachi's shops well filled with the restricted items. When the Pakistanis tried to check the flow with a fleet of patrol boats, the smugglers installed powerful diesel engines in their dhows, sped to secret rendezvous with mysterious tramp steamers far offshore, then raced for the Gateway of Winds faster than Pakistan customs launches could follow. From Gwa-.dar the smuggled stuff poured into Pakistan's markets by camel train, fishing boats and trailers pulled by souped-up Chevrolets along the sandy beaches.

Last Killing. Last week's sale, accomplished under Britain's good offices, came as no surprise to the freewheeling middlemen of Gwadar. In anticipation that Pakistan's customs restrictions would soon surround them, the smugglers had changed their occupation to just plain importers, stuffed their mud-walled warehouses and piled the beachfronts with great dumps of cosmetics, transistor radios, automobile parts, nylons and U.S. cigarettes. The Pakistanis, too pleased at plugging the hole to begrudge Gwadar its last killing, ran up their green and white flag and announced that they hope to develop the place as a navy and air base, eventually to deepen its shallow port until it ranks after Karachi as the republic's second seaport.

-Others: Portuguese Goa and Macao, Britain's Hong Kong.

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