Page 372 - Records of Bahrain (3) (ii)_Neat

780 Records of Bahrain

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APPENDIX III TO REPORT ON BAHRAIN REFORMS.
Speech made by the IIon'hie Lieutenant-Colonel S. G. Knox, C.S.I., C.I.E., Political
Resident in the Persian Gulf, at the Majlis convened in Bahrain on the 26th Man
1923.
Gentlemen:
You Lave just heard read to you the letter in which Shaikh Hamad announces
to you that lie has, in obedience to tho orders of the British Government, taken
over the administration of these Islands as his father’s fully empowered Agont,
Some of you present hero to-day may remember what was tho state of these Islands
whon fifty-five years ago Shaikh’Isa was summoned by Ilis Majesty’s Govornmont
to take his scat a3 Shaikh. These Islands were then exposed to tho full blast of in­
ternecine strife, rapine and disorder. Ilis father, Shaikh Ali, had been killed in tho
fighting that had taken place a few months before. For fifty-five years his rulo
has been blessed with peace and, on the whole, good ordcryf. Ho has boon a
steady loyal friend of the British Government and the Islands have undoubtedly
progressed in wealth, population, commerce and agriculture. The Islands of
Bahrain are ever watched by covetous eyes on both sides of tho Persian Gulf
and tho fifty-five years of Shaikh ’Isa’s rule have been no mean achievement. I
am sure I may speak confidently on behalf of this assembly of Bahrain Notables
when I say that we all thank him for what he has done for these Islands : he leaves
no enemy or ill-wisher behind him and we all wish him still many happy years of
well-earned retirement after the labour and fatigue of so many years of arduous
rule.
Recent deplorable events, on which I have no wish to dwell on this occasion,
have merely emphasized ar.' accentuated an insistent cry for reform of the ad­
ministration on modem lines and there is, after all, nothing suq)rising in the fact
that a man who has reached the ripe age of seventy-five years has not been found
capable of responding to this demand. For some years, Shaikh ’Isa’s easy tolerant
rule—some may perhaps call it misrule : I personally prefer to call it lack of rule—
has led to the growth oi a number of petty tyrannies and independencies which were
fast crystallising into vested interests and seriously weakening the Administra­
tion. Rights were being lost which it wou’d be hard to recover and the British
Government, looking to the general good, have in their wisdom decided that it is
time that new blood was introduced and the Administration strengthened.
Shaikh 'Isa is still titular Shaikh of these Islands and Shaikh Hamad is only his
Agent, although the fully empowered Agent for his father, and he has assumed
,a very difficult and thankless task.
Gentlemen, you know Shaikh Ilmnad far better than I, a foreigner, can know
him. You know he is a modest, unassuming man, but I should like to tell you
that throughout the negotiations that have preceded this decision, Shaikh Hamad
lias valiantly fought for his father’s retention and it was no greed for power that
led him to assume the Administration. It is rather a regard for his father’s good
name, for the benefit of the Al-lvhalifa and for the welfare of the Sunni community
that has induced him, despite some diffidence, to take upon his shoulders the
weight and burden of the Administration. He relies greatly on the promise of
unstinted and loyal assistance from his brother Shaikh Abdullah, and I am here,
as the mouthpiece of my Government, to promise the help of that Government to
Shaikh Hamad in all paths of lawful endeavour both against external aggression
and internal sedition.
It i8 quite possible that many of you present here to-day, especially Sunnis,
may view with regret the disappearance of a Sunni ruler who has ruled over you
for so many years. It is a very natural feeling and I venture to express tho very
earnest hope, almost the belief, that our proceedings to-day will eventually tend
to tho uplift and special progress of the Sunni Community. Ever since somo
twenty years ago Shaikh ’Isa in his wisdom handed over to tho Political Agent,
Bahruin, the administration over and direct responsibility for foreigners, there
have been practically two Governments working side by side in Bahrain. One
has beeu open and above-board and has resulted in an enormous influx of foreigners
to these Islands and I believe that I shall not be accused of exaggeration if L say
that the proportion of foreigners has during the last twenty years progressed as