Page 100 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

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402 Records of Bahrain
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Cl. During nil this time we have protected the State from outaido oncrohch-
moat, and since the Shaikh was put and kept in his place by our power wo linvo felt
some responsibility for his internal administration and liuvo felt that common
gratitude on his part must give us some rights of advice.
We have however always publicly insisted upon his indopcndonco and ho has
imbibed the idea of the fact that lie is independent.
52. Cut with an uneducated Arab tribesman independence means the power to
do many things of which we do not approve. It means administering the Islands
for the benefit of the chiefs of the tribe to which lie belongs, it means — as it means
in many Native States in India—the exploiting of the people for the rulers, it means
to a bigoted Sunni the treating of the Shiahs as people of an unprivileged class,
(as we see today in Ibn Saud’s country, fifty miles away on the maiuland) it means
justice tempered with a consideration of the position of the ruling tribos, and to a
man of sixty, as Shaikh Esa was when the first crisis occurred, it means an abhor­
rence of all new-fangled ideas. Thus thq more we insisted, the more ho felt his
position threatened, and tho more he resisted. Tho trouble that camo was bound
to come if we desired a clean administration and elementary justice.
Indeed Colonel Knox, knowing the type of man and the civilisation with which
we had to deal, pointed out when the reforms were made that it was inevitable that
the power should fall more and more into the hands of the Political Agent, at any
rate for some years.
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53. But we have already had, in the past, our experience of trying to work by
merely advising, and the Government, not the Political Agent, finally had to insist
on threats instead of advice.
Shaikh Ilamad is a pleasant man, but a weak one, and it is idle to pretend that ho
and his brothers .would not backslido. Ife has already shown that he is very much
liable to the influence of Ibn Saud, and to other Arab influences. He has stated
that he looks to Ibn Saud as the great Arab ruler whom they would all wish to
please.
He, in a way, likes the British Officers lie meets, but he, like every other Arab
Shaikh, would gadly be rid of us all and go back to his definite Arab ways amongst
s.
his fellow Arabs.
54. The question then is what arc we going to do, now that Bahrain is, however
little we may desire it or have desired it, administered as a British Province, for
apart from the British employees, the Levy Corps is entirely Indian and we have
nearly completed a Revenue Survey carried out by Indian Surveyors.
55. 1 am separately from this despatch submitting suggestions for the reduc­
tion of the number of the British employees and we arc doing all we can to induce
Shaikh Hamad to accept the responsibilities of tho post which lie holds.
50. But the reforms which we have introduced arc essentially Western in
ethics and in principle and foreign to the Eastern mentality of an Aral) Shaikh.
To relax too much, to allow Shaikh Ilamad his way, moans to go through the
same grind through which we have come, and we cannot afford to-day, any more
than in the past, to let Bahrain conic under the influence of any other power Eastern
or Western. It must be remembered that only in 1906, 37 years after we had put
Shaikh Esa on the throne, and after we alone had kept him from annexation, and
notwithstanding our treaties with him, lie had ideas of accepting Turkish nation­
ality.
57. Bahrain is more important to us than it ever has boon. There is little
doubt that with the development of Persia our strength on that coast will be weak­
ened. It is for us to see that it is not weakened with the Arabs as well.'
The Persian Gulf is vital to us as a point on tho line from which our oil comes.
Bahrain is a keypoint on the air route to India and tho East, and without it,wo
could not maintain a service. We cannot lose Bahrain. But notwithstanding our
outwardly strong position on tho Islands, a singlo sorious quarrel with Shaikhs
...ci and Hamad, a quarrel engineered by Ibn Saud on religious grounds, or through
Persia on political grounds, and we should havo to vafiato our privileged position