Page 19 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (3)_Neat

1

5

Improvements in Bahrain
Rev. G. J. Pennings

HE rising tide of material civilization which, during the war,
beat so powerfully around Basrah and other cities up country, but
T left Bahrain almost untouched, has in the last few years, notably
the last two, extended to that place too. It may be of interest
to describe a few of the new things that have come into the life of the
people here, for they affect the surroundings and atmosphere in which
we have to carry on our missionary endeavors.
The niohl evident, though by no mean* the moat useful thing, jg th«
rapid iuerca.se in the number of aulumubilcH. In the last two years they
increased here some 200 per cent. On the face of it, there is very liu|,
use for those vehicles here. It is a case of
Nowhere to come but in
Nowhere to go but out.
For on both of the two islands there is no town of any importance om-
side of its main city where all its cars are owned. So they are used
almost exclusively for pleasure, especially in summer, to go for a ride
in the desert towards evening, to visit some gardens or to go bathing in
some spring. Still, these cars bring pleasure not only to the rich, for
there are a number of cars for hire, so that, by clubbing together, even
the less well to do can pay tor a ride in a car to escape the heat of the
city and bathe in a nearby spring. Also a large number of the more
capable young men have found an outlet for their energies as driven
and repairmen.
Another advance in transportation, of far more utility than the auto,
mobile, is the adaptation of the internal combustion engine to their own
sailboat hulls. In a place as dependent as this upon wind and tide, it h
an improvement that would easily suggest itself, but it was somewhat
delayed in coming. The first launches brought in complete from else-
where were unsatisfactory and served only as costly experiments to
prepare the way for further progress. There were no experienced !
■drivers to run the engines, too light as it was, while the hulls were too
weak for the shallow, rocky Bahrain harbor. But now they are im­ I
porting simple, heavy duty engines, which are fitted to the locally built i
staunch hulls, which every ship’s carpenter knows how to repair. These
boats work excellently. In a place where it often takes hours to cover \
the six miles from the shore to the steamer in a sailboat, it is an i®.
provement to be able to do so in a few minutes. Not only so, but
some of these larger launches make trips to the cities on the mainland.
For instance, a regular service is maintained with Dohah, about 1QQ
miles away. The trip is made in 14 hours regularly. Once when Dr.
Harrison and I came back from Dohah by sail it took us 8 days to
make the trip. At another time it took me 5 days to cover 45 mila.
Hence the advent of these boats spells a real advance. At present thej
are fitting up a still larger boat to make the trip to Bushire, across the
Gulf, some 170 miles distant.
Some of these local developments have been made possible by tf*
fact that in recent years some of the income from the custom house hi*