‘File 29/20 I Bahrein & Trucial Coast Stock Position and Statement of Bahrain Imports, Exports and re-exports of certain foodstuffs’ [‎67r] (133/638)

COPY.
/?/// f
D.O.No. C/1299-34/3 k .
§ubject:- Rice.
British Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Sharjah.
Dated the 5th .ecember, 1943.
&
Dearlvlajor Hickinbotham,
M ^ Kinaly refer to your D.O.No. C/1580 dated the 17th
November, 1943. , j. 0 .
r • ^ ^ regret tha^ir we h ve discovered an error inthe
xJubai Custom s t igures for food^stuffs in hand, which has been '
reported in my telegram No.1288 dated the 4th December, 1943. This
erior goes back to October (before I returned here from Bahrain) and
arises from approximately 2000 bags of wheat, containing 224 lbs each,
.eing reckoned as 164 lbs each. Our monthly consumption of all food
grains no. works out as follows:-
September(Ramdhan)
October
November
1313 tons.
1047 "
1012 ",
, , 30 ^hat it appears that our consumption in October
was not above average.
' 3 * _ ^7 estimate of Dubai’s population at 100,000 was
^ S11 P °L^ he u ? e f 1 ’ T for which 1 apologize. The figures should have
ou 6 ?! ,0 ? 0 4 . W ^ ich 1 think is approximately right, although the
o laikh maintains ^ stoutly the population of Dubai with the bedouin
ae^endent on ii is not less than 30,000. at 13p:lbs per head one
ag oj rice suffices for 12 people so that 4000 bags should have been
consumed by 48,000 people. In addition to this many ships left
Bubai for the 1943-’44 trading season, and these had to be provisioned.
Lorrimer s estimate of the population was made in the early years of
toe century since when there has been a large influx to the Trucial
Coast, and to Dubai in particular, from Lingah, Hormuz, Bandar Abbas,
Jask and o her smaller towns in South Persia,
and a further influx to Dubai from other Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. towns has
occurred in the last year.
. , 4 * , 1 am doing my utmost to ascertain the present
stocks held by private persons but no one is in a position to Five
^?$»r at ? 4 . risures for his neighbour’s stocks and the task in a verv
difficult one. All that is certain is that the stocks in the bazaar
§ 0< * 0lvns ( v 'hich, you will note from our memorandum No.
V r • 3 ^ dated the , 27th duly, 1943 were only ascertained by the use
of stringent measures) have been exhausted and that rice can v now be
obtained in Dubai only by force or by threats. This rice, unfortunate
iy, was not a Government supply like the ./heat, barley etc., but was
ordered, imported and paid for privately by merchants.
c , . 1 doubt if smuggling from ;atar is still goinp on
Shaikh fiamad bin Abdullah was deeply impressed by the serioasnees“of
the stf rice situation ofi his visit here and since his return I hear
that he caught the youngest uarwish brother smuggling rice and told
hi_; no., to. ( This was related by the miscreant himself to Cantain
Nelson of the Khuziatan)
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) h.p.0’C.Tandy.
To.
Matyor T.Hickinbotham, O.B.E.,
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. ,
Bahrain.