Page 547 - PERSIAN 8 1931_1940_Neat

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Tho increase in the porsonnol omployod in 1930*37 is explained by the
fact that during the two former years tho rofincry and a largo construction
programme was in progress.
During the lattor part of tho year tho Bahrain Petroleum Company carried
out tho important development of refining in Bahrain oil from Hasa.
During tho latter half of tho year tho Bahrain Potroloum Company and
their rivals, Petroleum Concessions Limited, resumed negotiations with tho
Shaikh for tho “ Unallotted Area ”, i.e. tho area in Bahrain territory not
covered by tho Bahrain Petroleum Company’s present concession. Negotia­
tions were in progress at the end of tho year.
At Kuwait oarly in the year the Kuwait Oil Company found oil in quan­
tities which indicated the prosenco of a large field. Later in tho year oil was
struck in a second well, and though oil has not been found in commercially
exploitable quantities there is every hope that this object will shortly be
achieved.
In Hasa early in the year the California Arabian Standard Oil Company
struck oil, and by the ond of the year were sending oil to Bahrain for refining.
Medical.—Throughout tho year excellent work continued to be carried
out in the dispensary at Kuwait and the hospitals at Bahrain and Muscat.
These institutions are attached to the Political Agencies, arc maintained by
the Government of India, and are in charge of Assistant Surgeons of the Indian
Medical Department, who arc also tho State Quarantine Medical Officers.
In addition to tho humanitarian aspect of these institutions they have a valu­
able political effect in influencing local public opinion in our favour. They
aro under the administrative control of the Residency Surgeon, Bushire, who,
for international purposes, is Chief Quarantine Medical Officer for the Arab
States of the Persian Gulf. A new dispensary at Dibai, on the Trucial Coast,
under the charge of a Sub-Assistant Surgeon of tho Indian Medical Depart­
ment was sanctioned at tho end of the year.
Kuwait.—No advance was made during the year towards the settlement
of tho difficult question of tho Shaikh of Kuwait’s date gardens in Iraq.
Ono case of incursion by Iraqi police cars into Kuwait territory occurred
in Juno. No satisfaction was forthcoming from the Iraqi Government in
reply to the protest made regarding this incident.
The Saudi trade blockade of Kuwait continued throughout tho year.
Towards the end of the year, however, the Saudi Government displayed a
more reasonable attitude in the negotiations which were proceeding between
them and His Majesty’s Government on the subject, and there were distinct
hopes that this difficult question might soon be settled.
Tho year under review saw an outbreak of agitation by the people of
Kuwait against tho Shaikh for a moro democratic form of government. The
Shaikh, contrary to Arab traditions, and to his promiso to his people on his
accession that ho would have a nominated Advisory Council, as had existed
in tho days of the great Shaikh Mubarak, had administered the State purely
on autocratic lines, without even consulting his own family. In October,
after an outbreak of local agitation which the Shaikh succeeded in suppressing
temporarily, His Majesty’s Government advised the Shaikh that he would be
wise to associate his poople with himself in the administration of his State by
tho formation of an Advisory Council. The Shaikh did not take this advice
and as the result of a strong popular movement, to which the Shaikh yielded,
an Executive Council was elected, which drew up a Constitution for the State
depriving tho Shaikh of much of his power. A communication was, however,
made by His Majesty’s Government to the Shaikh and the Council that by
virtue of the former’s treaties with His Majesty’s Government the conduct of
foreign affairs of the State would continue to remain in their hands, and that
the relations of His Majesty’s Government with the State would be conducted
with the Shaikh. This the Council accepted without demur. In December
tho Shaikh, with the aid of certain of his Bedouin tribesmen, but without
bloodshed, succeeded in overawing the Council, and in dissolving it. A
fresh Council was elected but never met, a dispute between it and the Shaikh
having arisen over tho Constitution drawn up by tho first Council, which the