Page 190 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

178 Records oj Bahrain
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have decreased in mufflers by 90 in the last year
or so,
Asiatic foreigners by over 250, and subjects of Bahrain
by 17C0. Everyone of course knew that as construction
was completed large numbers of employees would be laid

off, but the fore-knowledge thatthis was coming does
not make the depression any the more tolerable. Reduced
employment in the Oil Camp, like the failing pearl industry,
hits the towns most, though it is not altogether without
effect also on the villages, which after all must sell

their produce in the towns. It follows therefore that
careful consideration must be given to the question of
providing employment for the town Arabs since it is axiomatic
that unemployment and loss of trade among the smaller shop­

keepers must provide fertile ground for the growth of
agitation. As it happens, there will during the winter
be employment for numbers of people on the extension of,
the Customs Pier and the building of the Muharraq sea road,

and in due course there will be further employment for a
certain amount of unskilled labour when the causeway between
the two islands is completed and the bridge constructed.
But to my mind the Bahrain Government should look for some-

thing more permanent. I confess it is not easy to suggest
anything, and at the moment I can only think of the establish-
ment of a button factory, I know this has been thought of
and talked of dn the past, but I think it might be followed

up more effectively now. There is quite a trade in rnother-
of-pesrl being exported mainly to Germany, and I should have
thought that something could be done in the way of a Govern­
ment-subsidised factory in Bahrain without .the State running
any danger of serious loss, For the villages I fool that
the objective might be collective farming, though nothing

much can happen till we get the Agricultural Adviser1 s report
(which is already months overdue). If this is to be made a
^ C'i. success/-