Page 109 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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REVIEW OF THE PERIOD FROM SEPTEMBER 1953 UNTIL THE END OF 1954.
This report covers approximately sixteen months. As a result of the decision that the
Government should adopt the Gregorian Calendar for accounts, statistics and reports the first
four months of the Hejira year 1373 as well as the 12 months of 1954 have been included in the
report. In future annual reports will deal with each year from January to December.

Financially the State enjoyed a very prosperous period ; the revenue in 1954 was 667
lakhs, about five million pounds sterling, but this income included substantial non-recurrent
payments by the Bahrain Petroleum Company on account of income tax which was due from
the previous year’s operations. The expenditure increased greatly and the sums which were
spent on public social services, education, public health, medical services, subsidised housing
schemes and on building new schools, hospitals and dispensaries, were higher than in any
other year.

Considerable progress was made with the gas-electric scheme, an important project by
which electric power is to be generated by natural gas from the oil field and distributed from a
large new power house in Manama to most of the small towns and villages which have not in
the past been supplied with electricity.
Trade was fairly flourishing during most of the period under review and once again the
customs revenue was higher than in the previous year. Several rather spectacular bankruptcies,
most of them among Indian shop-keepers, caused repercussions in the Bahrain bazaars which
affected trade for some time. For many years no bankruptcy cases had been known in
Bahrain.
The building boom continued and more houses of all types were built, ranging from
blocks of European style flats to little two- or three-roomed houses for working class families,
but in spite of great building activity rents remained high and there was a shortage of houses
of all kinds.
The Government’s staff was increased, although it was found to be difficult to obtain
enough trained Arab personnel for many of the posts which were available owing to the com­
petition by contracting companies and the excessively high wages paid in other states. Several
new British officials were enlisted by the Government which now employs over thirty British
subjects.

A number of rulers of neighbouring states visited Bahrain, these included His Majesty
King Faisal of Iraq, His Majesty King Saud, the President of Turkey, the Governor General of
Pakistan and Shaikhs from the Trucial Coast.

Politically these sixteen months were a period of internal unrest such as has never been
known before in Bahrain. In the beginning there was an intensification of the Sunni-Shia
dissentions which had been growing more bitter during recent years. Various incidents
occurred which aggravated the feeling between the two sects. Sectarian differences then
receded into the background giving place to agitation directed against the Government
ostensibly with the object of pressing for reforms in certain departments and introducing new
political concepts which are still foreign to the people of this part of the world. The majority
of the people of the country, during this time of political unrest, had not the slightest idea
about what their supposed grievances were and the political backgrounds and the present
behaviour of the so-called leaders precluded the possibility that they might be acting from
disinterested motives. Bahrain, however, was not the only state in the Gulf to have political
troubles, in neighbouring countries and Shaikdoms similar developments were taking place.