Page 566 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920_Neat

48 ANNUAL REPORT BY THE PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL RESIDENCY
inoculated. The number of people inoculated during this opidemio was 1 obi
os comporod with 781 in 1915 and 93 in 1911 * •
Stops were taken to clean the town of Manamah and tho mat roofs of th
bazaarj which were filthy beyond description, were removed. These measure*
bad a good effect and resulted in the death rate of Manamah boing far bolo^
that of Muharraq Island.
Tho existence of the wireless telegraph has been a great blessing, as tho
mails havo been very irregular and the
Wireloi* station.
Reuter’s summaries have been of much
value for spreading war news.
Friendly correspondence on minor
Bin 8a'nd.
matters and giving news has been kept
up with Bin 8a’u<L
On November 14th Mr. H. St. J. Philby’s Mission proceeded to Riadh.
The HasarRiadh route is fairly safe—two caravans were looted by tribes
hostile to Bin Sa’ud in February, but the
Hua and Qatif.
lost goods were recovered. The Political
Agent’s visit to the Amir of Qatif has placed relations on a personal basis with
•happy results. The. value of such visits cannot be overrated and it is hoped
that in the future there will be more opportunity for making them.
Friendly correspondence has been car­
Qatar.
ried on regarding minor* matters but
nothing of importance occurred.
Qadhi Shaikh Qasim bin Mahzah, the chief Sunni Qadhi, has tried a large
number of cases at the Political Agent’s
Local Officials and the II tjlis.
request; his decisions are extremely good
and quick and he has a genius for extracting evidence from the extraordinarily
untruthful witnesses produced in Bahrain.
Qadhi Shaikh Knalaf, the Shi’ah Qadhi, was dismissed by Shaikh ’Isa for
corruptness and injustice in January and Qadhi Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad al
’Asfur has been appointed in his stead. He seems a rather colourless individual.
Muhammad bin Fadhal, J udge of the Salifat-al-Ghaus (Pearling Court),
has dealt with cases quickly and fairly well; he ia, however, much under
the thumbs of the pearling fraternity and" it is often difficult to get justice for
a diver. It is hoped eventually to establish a court of three or four reputable
men at the head of the pearling’ trade who, though in tho trade themselves,
will not permit too gross injustice to be perpetrated by one of their number.
The number and details of cases brought to the Court of the Political
Agent, Bahrain, during the year 1917 are
Judicial.
shown below*:—
Dealt with bt. XxTIOJULITY OF PAXTIlB.

• 0
Is
£ i
5 .j a
8 to *2' to s,
< £ "a ■a a
u 3 5 6 s 0 -5 a
2 *2 = | s j •2 2 .2 i
S § •? I •e I 3 8* ' 0
co
55 £ & 3 1 ■*3 * £ *9 Oh l 53
Criminal 116 76 40 1 36 30 37 109 27 20 9
Ciril . 661 338 73 J04 82 2 12 70 183 264 399 131 176 20

The increase of 56 over the figure for 1916 in the criminal cases ifl due
largely to a sudden epidemic, early in the year, of frivolous complaints ; this
tendency has been suppressed. An hour has been appointed on each 9?.111]
day at which any person may present a petition personally to the Politic®
Agent. This procedure takes little time and almost entirely frightens 0
frivolous complainants.