Page 158 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

146 Records of Bahrain

the Political .Agent, Bahrain, would have no difficulty: •in/',^,V;
’ impressing upon" tho Majlis that when outrages, were .commuted ;:-
someone must suXfer, and tho sufferer would ordinarily;!heV.^ho
. v v
nearest hostile village, until they cleared themselves. 'T^is
is a point of view which, I believe, is quite familiar on .!
the Indian frontier and accepted by tribesmen generally as
perfectly reasonable and the ordinary method of dealing with-
:• .
outrages where ordinary police work fails.
I should farther have thought that it ought not to be
difficult to deal zb drastically with influential persons
who summoned to perform a public duty, decline to attend.
They might, for instance, be fined for contumacy and that
should quickly bring them to their senses.
In ordor to complete the correspondence I am now
forwarding a full copy of my letter N0.527-S which road with
the Political Agent’s report under special notice, throws
considerable light on the cornel problem.
I nm forwarding, a copy of this letter to the Political
Agent, Bahrail and would ask that I may be favoured with an
expression of tho views of the Government of India or tho
questions raised in this correspondence, viz (1) the imposi­
tion of a sense of collective responsibility for outrages,
(3) the camel difficulty. The fact that these two mutters
have been brought to the notice of high authority which is
taking a direct interest in their solution, would,I think,
greatly strengthen the hands of the Political Agent, in
pressing his views on Shaikh Hamad. I think that the latter
hardly realises how immensely it would strengthen his own
position if he appeared to bo acting not entirely of himself
but urged thereto by a healthy public'opinion which had come
to the conclusion that fanatical outrages mu6t inevitably
lead to trouble for the comimnitios that encourage them if
not for the actual perpetrators.
I have,etc • i
Sd/- S.G.Kr.ox,
Lt. col.,
Political Resident in the Persian Gulf.