Page 250 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

552 Records oj Bahrain
Page 5.
trie light installation io oagorly lookod forwurd to. Boot of

all our dotraotoro nro oilont and Bahrein is no longor a novo
itora in tlio Arab pro do.
IO. I will now oonoidor how far it io possible to go baok
on those ohangoo. Ao rogarfyl A, I oonoidor that It will ho i'm—
po8oihlo to dispense with Mr Belgravo. The fono et origo of our
trouble in Bahrein is that tho Government of India interfered f
with the oouroc of nature in protecting first Shaikh Isa an£ then
placing him with
Shaikh Hamad. In a roally froc Arab State, Abdullah would have
killed oX. disposed of theoo two long ago, and raado himself an
absolute ruler. Shaikh Hamad doos not owe his position to him­
self, and ia amiable and weak, and though ouocessivo P.A.s are
instructed to allow him to otand on his own feet and act for him-
oolf, unless ho wero to be reborn, he will always lean on the P.A.
and if he fails him, do nothing. I can heartily sympathise with
him,for in his dioliko of bother and in his afieotion for a coun­
try life and shooting his tastes exactly coincide with my own*

Ho dislikep and despises the Bahama who form the bulk of his
oubjeots, and so long as he can enjoy the pleasures of tho harem
after lunch, get shooting and hawking and onough money to sup­
port him he does not mind what happens to Bahrein, though he.has
no objection to a littlo pomp and prido of place# It is ob­
vious that suoh a man must have an effioient advisor if he is
to keop his head above water in those troubloue timos.
II. Shaikh Abdullah, tho only al Khalifa of any ability,
unueual
apart from a record of profligacy ( he io oroditod with a bag
A
of 500 virgins ) has a rodord of crime almost unequalled in any
Arab State, and it was only fear that made him coaqc his efforts
to undermine Shaikh Hamad and policy that made him cooperate
with the roforms. He is in gfrwwt touch with Bin Saud, tho' .
outwardly his oonduct io irroproaohable. Shaikh Salmon, Shaikh
Hamad*s heir, ia quite unsophisticated and not far removed from j
a Bedouin but not dovoid of promiee, and apart from thene the
I
l
adult al Khalifa arc nonentities, Incapable or vioious or all
three. The Shaikh's responsible miniotor would have to ?n