Page 215 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Constitutional reforms, 1955 201

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(V budgQtfxpy n«turo(l®^
nittees will apparently bo
free to ic|o as tpey wish \vithin tho limits of 'the funds
1 «
pllotted to tiiem, It is not a far stop from trhis to a
complaint by tbe committees that those limits are too
narrow, and it will not bo long before tho Ruler's share
of the oil royalties is called in quostion. A clash on
such a fundamental point as this must load on tho ono side
to a "last-ditch" attitude on the part of tho ruling

family and on tho other to a revival of tho demand for-a
legislative Council. The long term prospect is further
darkened by evidence that in hisi latest moves the Ruler
has outpaced the Advisor (a fact'of which we should
normally be slow to complain) and troddon on the toes of
hi3 British Judicial Adviser by announcing his intontion
of bringing to Bahrain a Muslim jurist not only to frame
i
a criminal code, but also to draft a civil law and to
undertake the reorganisation of the Courts. Tho existing
i
Judicial Adviser had been under the impression that he had
.peon brought here to fulfil precisely this role. It is
clear, moreover, that the committees will not enjoy the

support of the. merchant class, whose general attitude is i
that the reformists have now been given onough rope and
It is to be hoped that they will hang themselves,
^xperionco of reformist movements elsewhere, once they
have tasted power, hardly suggests that this is a likely
<
outcome. At ali events, tho educated and ruling classes
do not stand together at this critical juncture of
Bahrain's constitutional development, and in view of the
unity hitherto displayed by the reformists this is a pity.

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