"ملف 8/16 ملخصات استخباراتية بشأن البحرين" [و‎‎٥‎٥] (٣٣٠/١٠٩)

169/-
(it) On July 28th p. Persian bop.t left --.salu, a village lying
on the coast of Persia between Bush ire and Lingeh, bringing 400
goats to Bahrain. Owing to calm weather the journey to Bahrairv
took 11 days. The nakhuda had provisioned himself with neither
t ;raas nor water for the goats and as a result only ten cf them
reached B&hfcdin alive on hugust 6th. Of these, two died that
evening after their sale in Bahrain.
165« Ohortane cf sma1 1 coin s
There is again an acute shortage of small coins in Bahrain.
On August 1st an Order was published by the Political Agent pro
hibiting the hoarding of small coins ^nd providing for the^punish
ment of offenders^ a similar Order was passed by the Bahrain
Government. Pett>y shopkeepers are believe i to have been hoarding
up small coins, though searches of a #few cf^their shops by^the
Bahrain Police have not as yet brought anything to light. The
chief culprits, however, are the tswashes, v/ho go cut to the
pearling banks to buy pearls, and diving-crews, who have been
taking with them coins for eventual sale in °atif at a 20 per
cent profit. They have now been forbidden to take out more than
B$ 5 worth at a time.
166* Pearls
Many rumours are in circulation both in Bahrain and on the
Trucial Coast that the Government of India have placed restrict
tions on the import cf pearls. It is said that no imports from
the Trucial Coast are to be allowed at all and that imports from
Bahrain are only to be allowed on production of a "permit” from
this Agency. A merchant is rumoured to have recently been fined
for bringing pearls into India from Bahrain without having
first produced the necessary permit. This scare has caused a
reduction of upwards of 20B in the price of pearls in Bahrain
and on the Trucial Coast, and it is commonly suspected here that
it was engineered by the pearl merchants themselves in order t o
bring down the buying price of pearls. This suspicion is streng
th one d by the fact that, although the pearl merchants have been
informed that if they are anxious about the situation in India or
have received definite news about the 3?ds trie tions on the import of
pearls there, they should cc me and see the Political Agent so that
he may make official enouirics from India, none of them has dene
so,
167. Sau^;:Xln-
On July 31st Rashid Zoy'ni. sr n of Lhe 1" to Khan Bahadur
Abdur Rahman Zayani, a prominent pearl merchant of Bahrain, was
Caught red-handed in an endeavour to smuggle 50 packets of
M and B 693 out of Bahrain to Kuwait. Ho is now in custody
awaiting trial.
168. Bahrain Potr -' loi' m Comooqy Limited
Reference paragraph 159 of Intelli:ence Sumrr ry No. 14 of
1943.. On the ICth August six British employees of the Bahrain
Petr* leum Company left by sea en route to England” it is hoped
that in due course they will be fallowed by others. Meanwhile
the Company are endeavouring to arrange for three more, who
recently left Bahrain on long leave to South Africa, to be able
to go on to England from there.