Page 195 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

Demands for reform, 1935, 1938-1939 183
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my mind the Police Force requires strengthening, and of
course the sooner Belgrave con get sn assistant to help

in training and running the Force the better it will be.
This brings me to the next point.
(viii) The complaints of colonisation are of course
hardy perennials in the Arab press. The immediate importance
is that although His Highness and the Shaikhs have agreed
in principle that Belgrave must have an assistant, and
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appear to b e satisfied that Byard will be a suitable
choice, Shaikh Abdullah enquired from Belgrave a few
days ago whether he really thought that the present was
an advisable moment to appoint another Englishman. Admittedly

if Byard is appointed in the near future there will be a
recrudescence of the colonisation outcry in the press, but
the advantages to be gained by the appointment so greatly
outv/eigh the disadvantage of providing fuel for press agi­
tation that I think we should advise the A1 Khalifah to

go ahead. If I could see any alternative I should, I think,
be more cautious in suggesting this course, but we have
been over the ground so many times and everyone is satisfied

that there is no reasonable alternative likely to be efficient.
As for the complaint of excessive employment of
foreigners by the Bahrain Petroleum Company I think it is
mainly due to misapprehension. People still do not fully
realise that children born of Persian parents in Bahrain
are Bahrain subjects, and continue to regard them as foreign­
ers. Meanwhile the Company is getting rid of foreign Asiatic

employees as fast as possible, and I am satisfied that they
are making a genuine effort to comply with the Bahrain
Government's v/ishes in this matter.
4. A new phenomenon in this agitation was the posting
in Manamah, Muharraq and Hedd of manuscript notices, the

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