'File 8/8 VII Annual Administration Report for the Year 1948' [‎132r] (263/322)

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE BAHRAIN AGENCY An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. INCLUDING
THE TRUCIAL COAST A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. AND QATAR FOR THE YEAR 1948.
1. AL KHALIFAH .
(1) Sis, Hlflhneg g. Sha lkH g l r gal man
bin Hsm ad A1 Khallfah. K.C.I.E .
There is little remarkable to record about
Shaikh Salman during the year. He maintained his
attitude of being, on the whole, co-operative with His
Majesty's Government and of being aggrieved about Zubara.
He, perhaps, grows in pomposity and rigidity.during the
years. His health remained good. In June he suffered
from a large and painful boil but refused to have it
lanced. He turned down offers of trips to the United
Kingdom sponsored by His Majesty's Government and to the
United States of America, sponsored by "his” oil company,
on the grounds that American feeling was pro-Zionist and
that therefore an Islamic ruler should not visit such a
country. His real motives are more likely to have been
his fears of embarrassment amongst strangers, of travel
ling and of leaving the only limited world he actually
knows.
(11) In August the Shalkha Latlfah bint Shaikh
Ibrahim bin Khalid, wife of His Highness, left by steamer
for Karachi en route to the Hljaz, She was accompanied
by a large retinue who were enabled by the fact that
their baggage was exempted from search, to smuggle a
number of gold sovereigns into Karachi, The Shalkha
returned to Bahrain in November, While on pilgrimage
she was presented by King Ibn Saud with 2 Ford Mercury
cars.
(ill) His Highness' two uncles, Shaikhs Muhammad
and Abdullah bin Isa, both travelled abroad during the
year, Shaikh Muhammad spending parts of the year in
Egypt and the Lebanon, and Shaikh Abdullah going in
November to Kuwait fo^hawking trip into the hinterland.
(iv) In July, Shaikh Khalifah bin Mohammed al
Khalifah, Superintendent of Police, Bahrain, and a cousin
of His Highness, left for the United Kingdom at the in
vitation of the British Council, A very full programme
was made for his visit and included visits to schools,
colleges, docks, municipal councils, courts and various
police institutions in both England and Scotland. He
returned to Bahrain in September.
(v) In December, His Highness received a round
robin signed by a large number of the Al-Khalifah
Shaikhs asking him for increases in their allowances.
He was at first Incensed at this threat to his pocket
but the Shaikhs pressed their demand with such obstinacy
that he became alarmed and eventually yielded. He has
now increased the allowances to the Al Khalifah family
by Rs.2,80,000/- per annum, this amount to be paid from
his own income.
Suggestions are made from time to time that
the people of Bahrain are about to turn upon and pull
down the oligarchy of the Al Khalifa, many of whom are
lazy, ignorant and vicious and yet draw substantial
allowances for doing nothing. There are no overt signs
that such suggestions are true.
2. EDUCATION