Page 53 - Protestant Missionary Activity in the Arabian Gulf

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was opened in Muttrah "by Sayyid Sa’id, the Sultan of Muscat,^

Q7
and a hospital built in Doha for the Shaikh of Qatar. 1 Two

years later another addition was made to the Marion Wells
Thoms ’Women’s Hospital in Bahrain. In 1956 a Maternity

Hospital was opened in Muscat and the new Mylrea Memorial

Hospital was opened in Kuwait by the Ruler, Sheikh Abdullah

al-Salim al-Subah. In 1957 a new Parish Hall and annex was

constructed for the Kuwait Church. All in all, the years

1934 to 1953 saw more construction than any comparable period
in the Mission’s history despite the Depression and com­

petition from the oil companies and government medical

services.

A new generation of dedicated and well trained mission­
!
aries had been brought up to man the new facilities and take

the place of the pioneers. The Calverleys, who with the

Mylreas had manned the Kuwait hospital for twenty years, had

retired in 1931. James Cantine, one of the three founders,

had died in 1940. John Van Ess, who had founded the School

of High Hope in Basrah, and was one of the most articulate

and respected of the early missionaries died in Basrah in

1949. And, finally, in 1952, both Samuel Zwemer and Dr.

Stanley G. Mylrea passed away, Mylrea, who had made the

first overtures to King Abdul-Aziz Ibn Sa’ud to open Saudi

Arabia for missionary work and had manned the Kuwait Mission

from its earliest days until his retirement in 1945, was a

giant figure among the missionaries of 'the Arabian Mission.

He had returned to Kuwait in 1952 for a visit and there it

A