Page 189 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

Demands for reform, 1935, 1930-1939 177

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Shaikh Salman bin Hamad has been associated with the meetings

of the agitators, though Belgravc is convinced, and I agree
with him, that this is not true. There is nothing we can
do about this, for Sir Hamad will never, T fear, nominate
his successor except possibly on his death-bed; and we must
rely on family cohesion to prevent the question of the

succession being exploited by the agitators.
(ii) Information in Bahrain in regard to what has happened
in Kuwait is astonishingly inaccurate, end there was a belief
that His Majesty's Government had deliberately elevated the

Council there in order to destroy the power of the Shaikh.
It was for this reason that I a3ked you to let me know 'tele­
graphically the latest developments in the situation of
Kuwait and I told the Shaikh and his family the whole story.
They were extremely interested and I hope that as the story

spreads it will do much to remove any suspicion that a
"Reform Party" might expect support from us. I have less
anxiety about Dubai since Bahrain is in much closer contact
with Dubai and receives less garbled version of what occurs

there. Nevertheless, the fact that reforms of a sort have
been introduced both in Kuwait and in Dubai must obviously
provide agitators with useful material on which to base
demands for constitutional "reforms" here in Bahrain, however
different conditions may be here, and however much may have

been done to promote the welfare of t.he people.
(iii) and (iv). The bazaar is, I am afraid, by no means
as prosperous as it was. Clearly world conditions must
affect prosperity here and the critical situation in Europe
in the late summer had its full effect in Bahrain, Simulta-

neously the buying capacity of the personnel of the Bahrain
Pctroleuir. Company has declined. Europeans and Amoricans
hc.vo/-