Page 94 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

82 Records oj Bahrain

GOVERNMENT OF BAHRAIN.
m.

D. 0. Ho. C......... January 36th 1935*

enr Colonel Loch,
I enclooc, for your information, copies of the lottero
egr.rding the recent petition presented to Shaikh Homed by the leaders
f the Shia Bahranl community with a noto on the whole position. I
onoidcr that the matter is one of considerable importance. Though
n this case I do not think the Bahama have much cause for complaint
he present agitation is very similar to that which preceded Shnikh
oa'o abdication.
Last summer the ill-feeling, which has always existed between
.lie Bahama, who form I think about two thirds of the population, and
,he Ruling Family, became very acute. Various reasons and incidents
:ontributed to this condition. Tho bulk of the date gardens in Bahrain
iclong to the Ruling Family who lease them to the Bahama. Owing to
lie fall in the price of dates and in most cases dttrioration of the
;ardens on which very few of the Khnlifah spend any money there has been
! great decrease in the rent of the leases during the last few years.
[n some cases gardens arc let for half the rent which they used to
)btain and in addition to this tho tenants never pay the full rent, in
.lost cases they pay from one half to two thirds of the amount. The
Landlords sue their tenants in court, the tenants declare that they t
»ave no money and that the gardens produced less than the rent, the cou^
>n the application of the landlord sells the house and property of the
tenant and in some cases sends him to prison a6 a debtor. One of the
>iggest landlords is the Sunni Wakf Department. The landlords now
complain that their gardens are becoming worthless bacause their tenants
will not pay rent, they assert that the tenants are really in possession
>f money which they bury under the ground, preferlng to go to prison
ratner than pay rent. This is untrue. The tenants complain that they
are being harshly treated by the court v/hich sells their property and
gardens in order to satisfy the Khnlifah landlords. Actually the
Bahama always lease gardens for more than they know they are worth,
counting on a certain amount of rent remission. At the time of the
leases they bid against eachother and the landlords send men to stir
I on the bidding, promising easy terms to the highest bidders. Reasonable
men among the Bahama admit that the fault is with their own people who
agree to pay more rent than they can possibly obtain.
2. During the summer one of the Khali fan shaikhs, Shaikh Mohammec
bin Abdel Rahman bin Abdel Wahab, became a Shia. This is the first
time that such a thing has happened in the history of the Khalifah. The
whole family disapproved and expressed their anger by abusing Shaikh
Mohammed in public in the towns and bazaars, abuse of the individual
v/a8 combined with abuse of Shia6 in general v/hich v/as heard and much
resented by Shias who were present. Shaikh Mohammed lived at SAAR.
3. Shaikh Sulman cat alone on the Bahrain Court during the summo:
occasionally Shaikh Mohammed bin Ali, Shaikh Homed's brother-in-law,
an amiable nonentity, attended the court. Tho Bahama complain that
Shaikh Sulman's judgments were unfair and prejudiced an.i that he
favoured his relations nnu the 3unni Arabs. They complain that he
reversed the findings of cases which had been settled and gave now
judgmente in favour of Sunnis. A number of Arabs alno complain of
unfairness in caseo, but not in cases where the other parties wore Shia
4. Shaikh llarncd's herds of camels have been increasing steadily.
The Bahama complain that the camels, which I think now number about
400, are allowed to enter their gardens and destroy their cropo. Shaikh
strongly reoento uny complaint about camelo and 3oys the gardens are
mostly the property of the Khnlifah, this is the case but the crops fcd
belong to the tenants. This v/an one of the causes of the complaint
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