"(ملف 19/248 I (C 78 التعليم في البحرين" [و‎‎١‎٦] (٤٩٤/٤٦)

Bahrain,
July 20th 1939.
Dear nightman,
^ I am sending you Vallance 1 s letter describing the scheme v.hich he
discussed v, ith me here and which he had been thinking about for some
Mme, for makin^ Bahrain the educational centre of the gulf. It is a
very ^interesting^ iaea ? iz T .;ouia aooeal : F5" Th'e^^^^X^bjT^^laRrain and it
would be ^oi political value, in fact the,jnain object of, the scheme
at stc . in^ .^h^antjL-^ric^h jrcoa " nda 1 liich
is oemg ...spr eaa tnr ou^iri, yound .Arabs v/ho "are" be?ng educated
in ^Syria and .iraq and by Syrian and Iraqi teachers and oroviding sound
■British education v/hihh v/ould have great political value in the
future, i believe tnat something on these lines was succes^fullv
carried out in iden some years ago.
,entire agreement with Vallance 1 s coinion that young
menjiuucatea 'In Tgig anS . rTe . :,Wui- -riLljh'wEeHnEEw come
home> with tTery few exceptions this his
Bahrain youths educated at Seyrout or in Iraq. According to Vallance
,3Li:.:l ; ents in Iraq a.deliberately f ed , on ariti .l-itish "'
j r - L ^ is ift a position to Icnov; if this is the case. I have
oftenheard j^yr out Uni v ersity...desc ri bed a s a hotbed .of nationalism
ano. snoi-^nglisn oropaganaa, 1 heard this from Cousin "'oi^ mine who
worked TKere for a year' anS from other people as well, but these
poliuical views are not supported or encouraged by the University
authorities, e have had, in the past, the same trouble in Bahrain
with Syiran teachers who incited our own school boys against their
Government put nothing of this kind happened during the regime of
the late school inspector who in so te of faults was not anti-British
and had the teachers under very tight control. It is questionable
ofLBa hrain wi t her. fev^er bogs are goia Iriaia. Lately
nu g : 0 ^ r u 00 * s i ve be a 3er u By their pa l ena3 ^o Indian
schools Du'c^ i am'ttW yetr""in"a position 13"sTy'\^ this
experiment has been, warents sending sons abroad invariably complain
to me about the lack of advanced educational facilities in'Bahrain.
3# lf 7hic h Vallarice outlines came into bein end if
young^men from neighbouring states came here it would be of -reat
political value to the British Gov rnment but the cost and the
^esnoi^biJi^ lie heavily on jahrain. If tte'^'scKe^lvas"'a
success, and a thinE it would be, it would add to the irroortance and
prestige of Bahrain, I should like to see Bahrain both the redical
and educational centre of the Persian Gulf.
4. -there is a real desire in Bahrain for more advanced education
than anything which the Government now provides, if this was
available I believe people would pay for it. They want education, as
a1lance says, not for its on sake but because they believe it will
enable them to earn more money. It is the townsoeiole wh& are askins
for it and also, now a days, some of the young Shaikhs who have "
begun to be ashamed of being less well educated than shop keepers
sons. The townspeople need to earn money, the young Shaikhs do not
but I am sure that sc. e of the Shaikhs would willingly nav for thpir
sons being educated here.
5., If the institution which Vallance describes came into
existence there is certainly no better place for it thari Bahrain
3S^£jOlitical value of the scheme depends much on the suonort 'which
W ! a3ht obti.in from neighbouring states, especially, in'mv oninion
Arabia. Ibn Saud when he was Kefr spMe'of the danger of ' '
sending boys to be educated in Iraq but I think he would have no
objection to sending them to Bahrein. It is very difficult however
to estimate how many foreign boys would come here, until the collecrp
had been running for some time I dont suppose many i/ould come.
6. Apart from financial and practical questions the most
important point.to be considered is the number of
men wHo can be absorbed into jobs in Bahrain/ There is now such a
"e of educated young men that the Government ifitself has fco