'File 19/175 Bahrain - Pearling' [‎33r] (64/83)

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Confidential.
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The Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Bahrain.
24th ? Hay 193 0.
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y dear Colonel
The ' Raicbah 1 has
-
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/ i tement uiii? ye? r, nc 1 the reason I did. not iceep you in—
formed of the situation was that I felt I could deal v/ith
n.itr-i.iiT-fiu, -.nc that hr d an e urgency occurred a sloop would
have been thf^ only cure.
2. You will remember that last year the advances
were fixed at Rs TOO for divers and Rs 80 for haulers, and
ft
that as a result of a demostration of divers at Kuharraq
Shaikh Hamad very weakly gave way and allowed a fufcther advance
of l \ s 30 for divers and 25 tor haulers. The only excuse for
his weakness was that one of the leading nakhudc-s, Jabar bin
rusal'am of Hide, veered round to the divers side after hav-
supported thp other merchants and joined them in the demand
for larger advances. It should be noted th t the divers
have never realised that it is in their interests and to get
them out of debt that these acv nces are controlled, but the
merchants are more inclined tir n before to cut dov/n their ad
vances as they are short of cash, and Jabar bin Jlusallam v/as
probably actuated last year by a desire to embarrass his
rivals who could ill afford the extra advances sanctioned,
hen fi man owns five or six hundred divers it will be seen
The object
what a difference such an increase means.
ist'
of the ^rkbah advance is to .ceep the men's families while
they are away diving.
3. This year the advances had been fixed at 80/-
?nd 60/- respectively, after consultation with the leading
merchants, and the proclamation was published on the I4th ! T ay,
after the Toint Court had risen, so that the Shaikh should not
be involved in a similar demonstration and force our hands.
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T ost of the foreign diver? were over at T'uharraq and Hidd