Page 25 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

Appointment of Shaikh Hamad b. 'Isa A l Khalifah, 1923 15
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lowest class the divers - encourage them by finding them
work in the slack season, in habits of thrift which will
render them independent of Salaf and its oppressive usury
instead of encouraging them, as the Nakhodas do, in extrav­
agance and dependence. I must leave those among you who
wish them well to find out the way. Shaikh Hamad and the
Political Agent can do little but practical, cautious
philanthropists can do a great deal.
( N.B. The speech now passed into Arabic.)
And now, Shaikh Hamad, I ask you to bear with me
while I give you some advice for the future, I have already
spoken to you on the subject - and for one word I say to you

now I speak six to my other hearers.
My first piece of advice is "Fear two : first God
and then, fear" I had almost reversed the order, for Allah
is the merciful, the compassionate, the mild and the gener­
ous, while fear is the hated enemy.
My second piece of advice is, "Avoid two things:
hate and love". They are the "wasamain" (came 1-marks) of

the weak man and however harmless a weak man may be as a moral
chant or a cooly, he is useless as a ruler.
My third piece of advice is in regard to rewards
and punishments, the two principal functions of a ruler. In
regard to both of these, follow the rules of the British

Man-of-War and let twenty-four hours elapse between the act
and its recompense whether that recompense be good or evil.
Examine yourself if your heart is cold and if you find it
not so, wait another four and twenty hours. Then recompense.
And now 0 Hamad! I will tell you a story that I
heard here of what took place the other day when there was
an assembly much like the present one, to celebrate a
School Prizegivlng. Most of the scholars received rewards

but one, who probably did not deserve one, began to whimper
and the headmaster, fearing that he would spoil the tamasha,
led him up to you and explained that by some mistake this
boy had been forgotten. Whereupon, 0 Hamad: you pulled
out