Page 127 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Constitutional reforms, 1955 113

4
to lack or adequate attention to the details of

organisation and administration. The second general
reason for the unsatisfactory state of affairs in
the government is the very conservative financial
policy which the Adviser has followed and at present
follows. However desirable this may be from a general
point of view it means in practice that not enough

money is being spent on essential, services of
government, with the result that some services v/hich
are necessary do not exist at all or have only very
recently been created, such as the public health
department, created in 1952, and an organisation
for public relations created this month, and that
the others lack either adequate staff or equipment
such as the judicial department and the police.

While Bahrain until a comparatively few years ago
was the cynosure of the Persian Gulf, not only
as regards administration but as regards wealth,
it is now the poor cousin of Kuwait and Qatar -
and Saudi Arabia - who by offering higher rates of
pay than Bahrain oblige Bahrain to take only the

second best - or nothing - when British officials
are required, or draw away the best of Bahrain's
youth. It is of course important that the cost of
living in Bahrain should be kept as low as possible
and that rates of pay should be kept down, but there
is a point where, in order to secure the right man

/or the