Page 279 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

AND TIIE MASKAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR TIIE YEAR 1907-1908. 95

CHAPTER IX.

ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE BAHREIN POLITICAL
AGENCY FOR THE YEAR 1907-1908.
General.
The year under report has been comparatively uneventful, fcho financial
outlook being gloomy in the extreme owing to the foreign pearl markets
having shown no sign of improvement ot any time, while a most serious out­
break of plague in the spring contributed further to render trading unsafe,
consequent not only upon the mortality nmonsst debtors but also upon the
abrupt flight of others—chiefly British Indian, Turkish and Persian subjeots—*
beyond the ken of their creditors.
The general volume of Bahrein trade lias fallen from Rs. 4,73,18,202 in
1906 to Its. 3,18,33,633 in 1907-1908, showing a diepof 32*72 per c»Dt. The
trade is still however 12 per cent, greater than it was in 19 )4, the year prior
to the Government of India’s active intervention in the State’s atTairs for the
checking of misrule.
The result of the peayl-fishery of 1907 would be regarded in an ordinary
year as satisfactory, the take being above the average but not including so
many pearls of the first quality as in the preceding two years. The people of
both Katar and Katif are believed to have had better fortune than had. those
of Bahreiu.
Rainfall and Harvest.
The rainrall in Bahrain amounted this year to only 1*28 inches, half an
inch of which fell on the night of the 22nd May 1907, doing perhaps as much
harm as good.
This last mentioned fall was accompanied by a cyclonic storm of wind
which levelled with the ground almost every date-stick and matting hut on
the islands.
The number of date-trees uprooted and destroyed was first estimated at
3,000, subsequently increased to 10,000. Six or eight boats anchored in the
harbour were overturned and completely broken up. Six persons were said to
have been drowned, and 24 others in imminent danger were picked up out of
the sea by a life-boat from British India Steam Navigation Company’s
steamer Ulat for which act two of the ship's officers received medals from the
Royal Humane Society. A portion of the pearling fleet also encountered the
hurricane on the pearl-banks, about a dozen boats being capsized. The crews,
however, were saved with the exception of about three persons.
As a set-ofF against the material damage done, the plague-infected towns
and villages no doubt received a badly needed cleaning, and this, in conjunction
with the advent of the hot weather immediately afterwards, probably caused
the epidemic to commence subsiding as it did from about the beginning of
June.
The deficiency of the rainfall on the mainland, especially in Katar, was as
serious as in the islands.
Practioally no crop of grass was obtained at all, in oonsequence of which
most of the aquatic-nomadic tribes of Katar were obliged to send the greater
portion of their flocks, oamels and horses to the vicinity of Hasa and even
beyond for the hot weather of 1908.
The 1907 date crop in Hasa was a bumper one, both in quality and
quantity. Some difficulty was experienced, however, in getting the surplus
produce up to Basrah, where Hasa dates are much esteemed, in oonsequenoe of
the insecurity of the caravan routes.
The Katif orop was an average one, and the Bahrain crop rather below the
average.