Page 179 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Constitutional reforms, 1955 165
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DRITI8H RESIDEHCr,
(8181/69/55) BAHRAIN. i
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COWFIBSrfflAL. Juno 2°, 1955,.^| \\[\\,H?, :
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‘ The draft of tho Joint Consultative Committees Ordinance
haa at last boon appro vod. by*, the Ruler, although, as you will pee
from tho copy of our telegram no. 1*36, to Foreign Office of
Jvmc lQv(coming to ypu, presumably, by tho spa* bag as $bt$
lottor), wo wore obliged to amend it slightly. «•/»
2, . ; I /begin to.roalioo now that tho Job of getting the Labour
Law through, either aa one ordinance or aeyoypi, ,1a going,to bf
a slow. ©no. -.i (There is, to begin with,. the usual ml&P-e-psetepii
.unqpnoprn with time (our next peeting of the 'j^yif^jpy
wtlt ppt take;place until the^Otb of July beoaiuie^^.the ij^penOje.r
from Bahrainiof Mr. L.A. Smith, the Beh^<4n.?flt^<pn lib;
rep^penjptiyej and copies of the <Uraft law ip have/pot ho ••
yet bOtn’prppwod by (tho AdriaerateV; Mahaipiaojl J^nop (emplpTera*
represent at ire) gibes me tho impression that h'e may turn ouVt to be
an awkward member of the Committee; and lastly, .b\$ cortainly!.by/.:
no means least, the Ruler will, 1 think, have to be taked to a
good deal to be persuaded to approve whatever the Committee may
eventually reooasnend to him.

3. Sir Charles Bel grave, the Adviser to the Goyoirnmoqit, told..<:,'>
me that the Ruler was extremely loth to sign the Joint Consultative,
Committees Ordlnanoe, and that \\ waa only offer Sir/V$harlep.h«4.;;.! *j..
discussed it with him Xbr three hourp that he gave way, "Bo
resented, Sir Charles said, anything which took away oontrol of
labour from the Government - in whose hands the Ruler.thinks it.-ry
ought tp he. As it had taken mo three meetings with Sir Qheyles
to porsuad© him that an ordinance about Joint consultafiyo
commit tees was preferable to a notice or proclamation about' them,
which hp waa wanting after the Judicial Adviser had criticised the
draft ordinance on logal grounds, I begin to think that there will
be a lot of persuading being done before wo came to the end of the
task. Fortunately, porhaps, Sir Charles goes on lepve on Juno 22,
and Mr. G.W.R. Smith will then be acting as Adviser, ’’ We shall,
I think, make more progress through him. I certainly hope wp
shall.
4. The break in the frequency of our Comnittee meetings will not
affeot ny work unduly. When the Political Resident' returned from
Qatar Just after I arrived hen he suggested that visits to Qatar
and Kuwait might bp useful for me (the oil company at Qatar would0»
apparently welcome a visit from me). ■ I may use this break, t - • •S’
therefore, to visit Qatar, if not both plages, r
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5. I sjs sending copies of this letter to Greenhough pt the
Boadquarters of the Ministry of Labour, to Barnes at - the Foreigp,^*.' '
Office, and to British Middle Bast Office (Dev. Diy.) ^ '■ ' V!':-" .
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(c. Marshall)
P, Audslcy, Esq., O.M.G.,
British Embassy,
CAIRO.