Page 117 - PERSIAN 8 1912_1920

FOB THB YEAR 1012. 107
Shaikh Isa expressed his willingness provided that the other stations were
cted firsk He was very obstinate, being obviously unwilling to appear in
of an innovator, and was only with difficulty induced to accept a
* poial f°rin£^ assurance by the Government of India that they were going to
'P% stations at Kuwait and elsewhere. On this being later forthcoming he
crC(]ldrC^ his objection, and a site on the coast } mile to the south-east of
? a rrency was selected by the Political Agent and approved and measured and
^rked out by Lieutenant Townshend, R.E., of the Public Works
Tfcpartmcnt and Mr. Gumbley of the Indo-European Telegraph Department.
s(ago was reached in the beginning of September, and no further progress
i q been made locally except that the above-mentioned piece of ground
^easuring 700' X 5007 was formally given to the Agency by Shaikh Isa
k December.
It is hardly necessary to touch on this subject, which has been dealt with
Commercial. at l®11^ in the Trade Report for 1911-12.
It is sufficient to say that, owing to a
focccffiion of good pearling seasons, trade is booming in Bahrain, and British
gapping Companies and merchants are more than holding their own.
At the end of the year a second European was appointed to the firm of
Gray Paul & Co. as assistant.
At the end of the year information was received that the weekly wmfl
service was to be reintroduced from the
British India Steam Nnrig&iion Company.
beginning of next year. This will be a
great improvement.
This company maintained a service of steamers approximately fortnightly
throughout the year. The company seems
A.i&b Steamers, Limited.
to get a considerable amount of cargo
and a good many passengers.
R.I.M.S. “Lawrence” called at Bah­
Visit* of Hit Majesty's Ships.
rain on six occasions during the year.
R.I.M.S. “ Investigator ” visited Bahrain once.
ELMS. “Sphinx” arrived here on 7th June 1912, for a cruise in the
Pearl Banks and finally left on 5th August.
R.I.U.S. “Palinurus” arrived here on Sfch October 1912, for surveying
lie vicinity of the Turkish Coast and the northern approaches to Bahrain,
and was still in these waters at the end of the year.
At the instance of the Mutassarif of Hasa, Abdur Rahim, the Basrah-
Hasa Postal Contractor was sent to
Basrah-el-H&s* Post
Bahrain in April by the Wali of Basrah
to make better arrangements for & rapid mail service, and to proceed to Hasa
to remove all irregularities in the Postal Service reported by the Mutassarif.
Abdur Rahim did not, however, go to Hasa on the plea that the route was
unsafe, and complained to the Wali that unless the Government took measures
to suppress the Bedouin raids on the Ojair-Hasa route, it would not be possible
to establish any regular service between Basrah and Hasa.
During his stay in Bahrain he got a larger mail boat built.
Abdur Rahim receives Rs. 310 jer mensem for the Basrah-Hasa Contract,
and the Forwarding Agent in Bahrain, Mulla Abdur Rahim, is paid T£S a
fconth. The service between Bahrain and Ojair and Bahrain and Kaiif is
weekly, and between Basrah and Bahrain sometimes weekly and at others
fortnightly. The mails are sent in bags as personal luggage by the British
*odia, Arab and other steamers.
The state of business of the branch of the firm of Robert Wonckhaus and
Company at Bahrain is much the same as
The German Firm.
described in last year’s report. The firm
kfc filed a large number of suits in the Agency Court to recover debts on shell
transactions.
This institution pursued the even tenour of its way, and had no difficulties
with the local authorities or the people
American Viuion.
during the year. Dr. 8. M. Zwemer, the