Page 502 - PERSIAN 9 1941_1947

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Floodlights on the Agency did wonders of make-up
for its diurnal face. Tne 9th, 10th and 14th Kay
were public holidays. On the 14th May the Poli­
tical Agent gave an Arab dinner for His Highness
Shaikh Sir Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al Khalifah,
Ruler of Bahrain, the heads of local British and
American institutions and leading merchants.
(iv) Celebrations for V.J. DAY on the 15th August
came as somewhat of an anti-climax to that of V.E.DAY.
Celebrations were reserved and the inevitable lassitude
engendered by the month of Ramadhan undoubtedly played
its part.
(v) On the 21st December Haji Yousuf Ahmad Kanoo
died at the age of 71. His association with His
Majesty's Government started in 1398 in the time of
the Agent Haji Ahmad bin Abdur Rasool. He continued
to serve as Assistant until the arrival of Mr.Gasken
in 1902, and was associated with Major Prideaux and
Captain Mackenzie until 1909. He received the
Kaiser-i-Hind medal, second class in 1911, the title
of Khan Sahib in 1917 and the H.B.E. in 1919. In 1924
a C.I.E. was bestowed upon him. The death of this
well known old Arab was marked in Bahrain by the
closing of the Bazaars for one day.
22. THE WEATHER.
Local repute has it that for ten years Bahrain
has not had weather of the severity experienced during
the month of July of the year under review. For days
and nights without intermission the steamy heat was
intense, and there v/as no wind to relieve the atmo­
sphere or ruffle the oily expanse of the sea. It was
during this period that the electrical system in Bahrain
struck for shorter hours of work and ceased to function
for irregular and frequent periods.

Some forty to fifty R.A.F. personnel had to be
flown out of Bahrain as a result of heat exhaustion and
severe "prickly heat", a skin disease which in its
mildest form produces nervous irritation and when severe
can be acutely poisonous, and of Y/hich there were very
many oases. No European or Indian during this period
was free from it and many Arabs also were affected.

23. ECONOMIC.
(I) Banking and Currency.
With the cessation of hostilities both in the
west and in the east during the year, there was a con­
siderable loosening in the regulations controlling
trade and currency which gave both the merchants and
banking authorities a chance once again to do business.
Added to this was the opening of a second banking house
the imperial Bank of Iran - towards the close of 1944.
The rates offered by the banks to businessmen had now
to be on a competitive basis. Demands for exchange were

(Continued)