Page 350 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

336 Records oj Bahrain

6.

oign judgments. While it can he argued that the mere

possession of certain cjunlifientiona doeo not alone make u
competent judge it ia a fact that in the local mind the
hi Khalifa judgea ure regarded by the more educated Bahrainis
uu something which ia now outdated and incongruous, As
long ago as the autumn of 19134 we found it neccaaary to press
the Ruler on thio general point and as a result Mr, Peace was

appointed Judicial Adviser. Moro recently still Mr, Wnafi el
Nimr, a Jordanian lawyer with full British qualifications,
Iiub been appointed Registrar of the Bahrain Courts but so far
the Ruler has not allowed him to 3it as a judge though he has
agreed to do so at oomo time in the future, There are also
many complaints at the slowness of the courts in dealing with

cooes, this however i3 a complaint hoard even in Britain and
has less political sting in it.
7. As I have already oaid, Mr. Cummins’ proposals which only
cover the administrative machine and do not deal with the
question of the judges of the Bahrain Court, have not yet been
formally uccepted, although the Ruler hus agreed to them in

principle, and so wo cannot yet say whether they will be finally
applied in the form they ure now or whether they will offer a
sufficient appearance of modernity and improvement to be
workable and acceptable. The chances arc however that they
will come into force in due course and that they will at
least go seine way towards improving the general functioning

of the Government. Outside Mr. Cummins proposals I, aa you
know, have suggested to the Ruler that the Director of Finance
should be given a seat on the Administration Council instead
of only being coopted when the affairs of hio department come
up for discussion as is the caoe with other departmental heads.

Thio the Ruler has, with some demur uccepted. Both the
Your Excellency and the adviser and I fee 1 that the presence
of/

l