Page 262 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

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250 Records of Bahrain

coaae diving for thorn yoor after your,however bodly ho may bo treated.
It la fear of thio mutter being subjected to some regulation which h*«a
made tho Nr-khudun no stronuouuly oppose roformo in nccounting.They now
roallao thuy thorn is no ••oonpo A )vvo themselves brought up tho questions
A unk whnt intoront thoy will bo allowed to chnrgo.Thoy aro prousing for
a dooiaion on this point bofora thoy mnkn thoir fin«ncl>al arrangements

for thn present «o? non which wil] bo gin soon after Rumndhan.
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I discussed tho matter with thorn myself A pointed out that
ovon if ?.oworn allowed i*a regards tho "’laqum, which tho diver receives
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»r a y.v'r in advance, It seemed quite unroauonubl • to charge 2o^ on tho
Uolttf which ho receives only about 5 months before tho fihol settlement
! A which works out to ovor 40^ por unnum. I further said thnt it was
a matter on which I could not personally give a decision but would have
to writo fplly to you. Thoy replied that the merchants ohargod them high
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interest^ thoy could not oharge loss than that to tho divers.
I am personally of opinion th«t 15$ on the Tisqaw $> 7,v- # on the sol*f
(being for 10 3 3 than six months) would be v fair interest to njlow^ A

that suoh Wskhudas us have to borrow could rAian the money without
difficulty at those rutes .The majority of the Hskhudus ..innnoe them­
selves^ aot ns money lenders to tho crews A sea-going UnkhAdas who
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( serve under them.Of course it would to some extent curtuil the quite
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inaisoriminute amount of advances raede,which would be rll to the good.
In the past UakhudaB have urged divers to take advuncea *t high rates of

interest,in order to moke money out of thera(apart from the actual pearls)
A to get them in dobt/so that they could not afford to leave.I have ex-
v i.nined that suoh a system will no longer be neoessary^ a3 the court will-
in future(provided aocounts are proporly kept in accordance with instruc­
tions) assist them to recover their dobts#or fulling that,compel tho
divers to fulfill their contracts by diving,us long as any debt,however
small is satisf ctorlly proved A not paid off A that it will no longer
be necessary for them to fake enormous debts aginst their divers.whioh
1 they could never hope to reoovor,merely to hold them to thoir contracts.
Onoe they have clearly understood tho orders of Governmnut in the
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matter $ A ns nearly ull the divers i re British protected persons,being

Foreigners,Governranet has eoruo obligation to protect their J-nterests)-

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