Page 193 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

Demands for reform, 1935, 1938-1939 181
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one more local man. The now Nnjaf Qadhi would then constitute

a sort of a Court of Appeal from their decisions, Simulta-
neously the clerk of the Court, a thorough scoundrel, is
to be replaced by a Sunni clerk. Obviously this does not
at once remove all possible cause for complaint but the

proposal has many advantages and might well be tried out.
If it fails then some other experiment must be made. It
must of course be realised that Shaikh All bin Jaffar will
not go without a struggle and that his dismissal will be
followed by a certain amount of agitation on his behalf.

Al60 it v/ill be necessary to try to wean Shaikh Daqr from
the influence of the villainous ex Qadhi Shaikh Abdullah
j
and that again will not be too simple. (Personally I should
like to see Shaikh Abdullah exiled). All this, however

must be faced since there is unfortunately no 3hort cut
to real efficiency, honesty and public satisfaction.
(vii) As for Education, I think some people have regretful
memories of the profitable (and disgraceful) days of the
Bahrain Educational Committee, while others are besotted
with the Eastern idea of creating a machine to turn out

unlimited numbers of half-baked graduates. The main trouble
however is that Shaikh Abdullah bin ’Isa, who has of course
no real qualifications for the post of Education Member,
does not take sufficient interest in it and practically
everything is left to the Syrian Inspector of Schools, This

man is, I believe, quite competent, but he is conceited,
holds aloof from Manamah and Muharraq society and takes
little trouble to disguise his contempt for it. Belgravc
finds it difficult to interfere too much in Shaikh Abdullah
bin 'Isa's department, but there is little doubt that it

is mainly due to him that it runs at all, and it is interesting
to/-