Page 291 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

1

Bahrain reforms, 1929 593

YN/DWT. (135 group*) 6060.

COPY 0 F TELEGRAM

Prom Viceroy, Foreign & Political .Dept
to Secretary of State for India0 • 3
(COPIES
CIRCULATED) Dated New Delhi, 26th November, 19290

Reoeived 10.20 a.m.,, 26th November, 1929.
■
X i
l
\
3458-S. THIRD OF FOUK PARTS.
I
There cun of course be no question of rapidly
t
reversing all that has been done in the past six years.

It has, indeed, been good in itself, Still less oan there
be any question of our relaxing our essential hold on
Bahrein. Only question is whether time has now come to

check the momentum towards complete westernisation, and to
lay down general lines of policy which, while making for
continuance of decent government and sober progress, will
save us from odium and at the same time from the dangers,
inside and outside Bahrein, which seem likely to flow from

too obvious westernisation and absorption of these tiny
islands. After all, it is not only vis-a-vis the Arabs

that it is politic for us to work through a genuinely Arab
adm i n .1 s t rut i o n. It actually increases our power vis-a-vis
foreign intruders: thus, an obviously autonomous Arab
in whioh an obviously
State can close its doors in a way
British-run State cannot.