Page 188 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

176 Records of Bahrain
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I of administration in Bahrain, atm there has been some
!
talk of demanding the creation of a Legislative Council,

and there are rather more predisposing factors towards
the growth of agitation than I care to see. These can
be noted briefly as follows:
(i) The possible (at one time it seemed probable)
opening of the succession to the Shaikhdom in
the near future.

(ii) The examples of Kuwait and Dubai.
(iii) Trade depression.
(iv) The failure of the pearl industry.
(v) Dissatisfaction with the Law Courts.

(vi) In particular the scandal of the Shia Shera Court,
(vii) Dissatisfaction with the progress of education;
and to a less extent with the Police.
(viii) The perennial complaints of "British Colonisation"
and the excessive employment of foreigners by the
Bahrain Petroleum Company.

I propose to discuss these points separately.
(i) The question of the succession has of course been
of interest to certain members of the community for some

years, and I understand that about five years ago it was
being actively discussed in Manamah. Later people lost
interest in it but with His Highness* pilgrimage and his
recent illness, interest has revived greatly, In itself
the question of succession docs not provide a cause for
agitation for I am convinced that the likely competitors

are for too intelligent deliberately to organise parties
themselves; but clearly it provides a convenient facade
for agitation, for the staging of demonstrations and so on;

and of course party leaders must always expect that if
their nominee is successful they will be able to exercice
control over him. Indeed rumours have been put about that
Shaikh/-