Page 95 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

Unrest among Baharinah of Manama 83

2.

As u result the higher classes in the secondary
school contain very low boys and there is no demand
for university education. There ure no lawyers,
no "efl'endis" and no "black-coated unemployed".
Subversive Arabic broadcasts arc listened to and
newspapers read with a certain amount of interest
but everybody is too busy to pay much attention to
them and there is no nutional feeling to be fanned.
The Shaikh is on the whole a good ruler and takes a
deep interest in the wolfore of his Sfcito. I would
not say ho is vory popular but he is certainly not
unpopular and ho is perhaps regarded as a symbol
of the country's independence. The only alternatives
are direct British rule or annexation by I bn Saud
or Persia and there are few who would favour any of
these. Tho British connection is not resented
except by a very few us though we may not bo loved
all realise that we have brought them scatheless
through two wars and that the peace und prosperity
which they enjoy is duo almost entirely to us.
4. Tho long and tho short of it is that
there is full employment, everybody has enough
to oat and there is therefore little politicul
discontent, and unless the Bahrain Petroleum
Company has to go out of business bocause it cannot
market its oil or the character of tho ruler deterior­
ates I can see no reason apart from another war or
other major catastrophe why this state of affairs should
not continue for a number of yeurs to como. Even if
education in its higher forms does spread it will
be a long time before tho oil company, whose polity
it is to replace its Indian and Pakistani clerical
employees with Bahrainis, can absorb tho number of
matriculates or graduates which tho islands with
their small population can produce, This will be
even more the case if in duo course they find it
politic to give Bahrainis a bigger share in their
enterprise and associato them in their management.
y. vIn the preceding paragraphs I have dealt only
with.Bahrain but most of what I have said applies
to Kuwait and in a lessor degreo to Qatur. Kuwait
is politically slightly more advanced than Bahrain
but there is no sign thut oil development has in
any way weakened the position of the ruling family
or led to a demand for a less autocratic form of
government. There development has been very rapid
during the last four yours and there was a recent
and rather sudden reduction in the Kuwait Oil Company i s
activities. This may affect some of the merchants
but is not likely to produce distress amongst tho
people os a whole and will not, I think, have any
serious politicul consequences. In Qatar the
production of oil has only just started and it is too
early yet to suy what effoct the industry will have
upon the sparse and very primitive population. Up
to date it uppears only to have encouraged their
pilfering instincts. A start evon has not yet been
inado with education und it is likely to bo a vory
long time before any kind of political consciousness
develops amongst thorn. Dynastic upheavals inspired
by greed for the oil revonues ure possible.
6. I have deult so far with, tho political
5w»c#fs of 011 development in tho Porslun Gulf. I
snouiu por|lQps say also something ubout its morul and
/social