control of Aden Protectorate was transferred from the Government of India, which had inherited the British East India Company's interests in various princely states on the strategically important naval route from Europe to India, to the British Foreign Office. For administrative purposes, the protectorate was informally divided into the Eastern Protectorate (with its own Political Officer, a British advisor, stationed at Mukalla in Qu'aiti from 1937 to ca. 1967) and the Western Protectorate (with its own Political Officer, stationed at Lahej from 1 April 1937 to 1967), for some separation of administration. In 1928, the British established Aden Command, under Royal Air Force leadership, to preserve the security of the Protectorate. It was renamed British Forces Aden in 1936 and was later known as British Forces Arabian Peninsula and then Middle East Command (Aden). Polities The boundaries between the polities and even their number fluctuated over time. Some such as the Mahra Sultanate barely had any functioning administration. Not included in the protectorate were Aden Colony and the insular areas of Perim, Kamaran, and Khuriya Muriya that accrued to it. Eastern Protectorate The Eastern Protectorate (c. 230,000 km2) came to include the following entities (mostly in Hadhramaut): Kathiri Mahra Qu'aiti Wahidi Balhaf Wahidi Bir Ali Wahidi Haban Western Protectorate The Western Protectorate (c. 55,000 km2) included: Alawi Aqrabi Audhali Beihan Dathina Dhala Qutaibi Dependence of Dhala Fadhli Haushabi Lahej Lower Aulaqi Lower Yafa Shaib Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom Upper Aulaqi Sultanate Upper Yafa Sultanate and the five Upper Yafa sheikhdoms of: Al-Busi Al-Dhubi Hadrami Maflahi Mawsata Advisory treaties In 1938, Britain signed an advisory treaty with the Qu'aiti sultan and, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, signed similar treaties with twelve other protectorate states. The following were the states with advisory treaties: Eastern Protectorate States Kathiri Mahra Qu'aiti Wahidi Balhaf Western Protectorate States Audhali Beihan Dhala Haushabi Fadhli Lahej Lower Aulaqi Lower Yafa Upper Aulaqi Sheikhdom These agreements allowed for the stationing of a Resident Advisor in the signatory states which gave the British a greater degree of control over their domestic affairs. This rationalised and stabilised the rulers' status and laws of succession but had the effect of ossifying the leadership and encouraging official corruption. Aerial bombardment and collective punishment were sometimes used against wayward tribes to enforce the rule of Britain's clients. British protection came to be seen as an impediment to progress, a view reinforced by the arrival of