Page 703 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911

101 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULF

logger-heads, and the Agency committing itself to arbitrary action which
would have offended public feeling. It failed through the radical inability
of the Bahraini to bring any question on to a practical basis, and to substitute
ascertained facts for vague assertions.
In November, however, things took a more practical turn. Some one at
lest gained Shaikh lea’s car and he suddenly issued orders to the Amir of
Manama to turn the occupants out of about 30 houses in the town. This woa
promptly executed, but it did not at once come to the ears of the Agency ta
the evicted, though many of them foreigners, thought that the Agency must
have been consulted and have given its approval. After ascertaining the
facts the matter was taken to Shaikh Isa who defended his action by saying
that the landlords of the houce3 were his own subjects. This was not
entirely true, and in any case did not affect the question of tenants. Shaikh
lea was aceordicgly required at onco to re-open the shops and reinstate the
tenants, after winch any evidence of evil-living on the part of any of them
would, if submitted to the Agency, receive attention. The Shaikh yielded
with a good grace and the tenants were reinstated. No charges have been
brought against them up to the time of writing, and in one or two cases which
were investigated when the matter first cropped up, the people appeared to
be harmle:3 and wcll-conductcd.
It i3 undeniable that there is much suppressable crime in Bahrain, due
in part to the rii'-raff which the pearling industry attracts to the place, but
chiefly to the inelleicney of the local Administration. As there is no material
from which to draw Police or officials, and no financial system, the reform of
the administration is a very remote hope.
Recent history in Turkey, Persia, India and Egypt, and more especially
the record of it in the Native Prec3, has,
Arab Fcslisg a Dabrda.
a in Eahrain as elsewhere, stimulated
much frothy tkcvgLt and imagination. The old Arab conceit and vainglory
suffers nothing apparently from a dilution of the old Arab blood. The
Bahrain Arab now dreams of a strong and independent Arab federation,
and is proportionately impatient of foreign influence. The unpopularity
of the European management of the cargo-landing business in Bahrain at
the beginning of the year, and the substitution for it of purely Arab control,
was undoubtedly a practical expression .of these sentiments. It has cost
both Arabs and foreigners pretty dear.
The came cpirit has S2en in the Debai incident an eminent triumph of
Arab firmness and diplomacy against the foreign arch-meddler, Great Britain.
Britain was determined to establish herself in Debai as in Bahrain, but she
thought better of her scheme in presence of the masterly firmness of the
Shaikh, who would have none of it.
This * patriotic * spirit, however, fluctuates in accordance with the
temporal interests of the moment, and in no single individual is it very deep
or very genuine. It is as a sort of popular catchword which keeps alive the
idea of difference end opposition of interests and can bo employed by the
unscrupulous to create distrust, that it is a force.
Latterly Muslim versus Christian feeling has been further excited by the
events of the Turco-Italian War as recounted by the Native Press and Con­
stantinople telegrams. The war is of course regarded as purely anti-
Ialamic.
Persian affairs are also being watched with interest. The Persians are
of course those most exercised in mind, but the Arabs were ready with stories
of tho landing of the Indian troops having been resisted at Bushire, and they
would have been gratified by any British reverse. They have no sympathy
with Persia or tho Persians.
In spite of all this anti-European and anti-Christian feeling, the bulk
of the Bahranis appear to bo friendly enough to the Agency. Some Nakbu-
dr.s boar a grudge on account of pearl cases, but public opinion is against
them. The only generally hostile feeling in the island is, I thin!?, to be sought
among the Dosiria, with whom there is irequent trouble over the questions of
pearling accounts and slaves. They are not readily amenable to Shaikh

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