Page 334 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat
P. 334

654                       Records of Bahrain

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                        An equivalent plant could be operated by not over
              11-1/2 men,     It could be operated hero by 3-1/2 Europeans
              and 17 Indians, if vising no Bahreinis,     In othor words, a
              trainod Indian similar to those we now have in the refinery
              is equivalent roughly tc two Bahreinis in this plant.
                         The rates of all these men are subject to adjustments
              periodically and increases are given in accordance with the
              man's ability and attendance rocord.      It may be interesting
              to take the oaso of one of the orew — No, 1093 Ahmed bin Sagir,
              Tindal. This boy was personally hired by one of our Refinery
              Superintendents 2-1/2 years ago at 12 annas. He could not
              spea^ any English at all. During the past 2-1/2 years he has
              been taught to read and write English and has advanced steadily
              from 12 annas to Rs.2/8/-.

              Performance record of Educated Type of Bahreini
                         We have had very poor luck with the so-called "School
              Boy" type of Bahreini,      They refuse to do any kind of raahual
              labor, want high v/agos, and only want desk jobs and so on.
                         Since they do not know hoy/ to do anything except
              Y/rite their names and possibly a few figures, it is necessary
              that they be started at the bottom of the ladder.

                         The Company's best luck has been with natives of the
               "coolie" type that are taught English and brought along.
                         Recontly the Company experimented with "school boys"
               in the laboratory as oil testers.    Here was a job in an alr-
               cooled room, at desk3, in clean surroundings, doing the same
               typo of work as Class I, and starting at Rs.l per day,      Numerous
               "school boys" were tried and none were found that were worth a
               damn. Y/e finally took the "garden variety" of Bahreini.and
               have so far four of them fairly well trained. They are making
               from Rs.l/d/- to Rs.l/0/- and have replaced one Indian*
              Attendance Performance of Bahreinis
                         During Raraudhan the attendance performance of our
               Class III refinery employees was as follov/3:
             /           No days taken off v/ithout leave             217
                      1 to 3 "      ti   ii     ii     it             350
               More than 3    it    it   it     ii     it             113
                         During the (normal) month of September It was as
               follows:

                         No days taken off v/ithout leave , .         266
                      1 to 3 "      ii    ii    ii     it             243
               More than 3    it    ii    it    ii     ii              24
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