Page 275 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

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The pearl industry, 1924-1927 263

PnuS>1itiu resiQeng^
Tht Political Agency /BS
d.o. js/f/sr. Red- Wo. 1
Hu.Jiru.in. Dole ......
A o • •*? ^ ' OOHHOIHTIM.JW°B08.
/)c^y 413
P1ou.bc rol'er to your D.O. Ho 457-3 of I^iJ5.
I have not replied earlier because your lottor was received v/hilo
Shaik Hamad who uv/ay^k since lie returned I have had conversationD
with him,and liave discussed various points with others interested
A^
in tlia natter.
I havo read v/ith interest Mailam's letter 03/9/6
fir l think ho would agree,& we discussed the matteija little before
he left,that the practical difficulties in carrying out some of hie i
suggestions are insurmountable, I cannot help thinking that ilallam
was a little bold in coming to conclusions about the diving on the
strength of only sim months experience tk handicapped as lie Y/ao x±ih
by lack of time XAras to study it^ic by an insufficient knowledge of

arable to enable him alY/ays to get to the bottom of tlie inttiaaiios
k ramifications of the subject.
His statement that the measures of reform introduced
Included the abolition of the eld Salifeh Court is an error. The
Salifeh Court had died a natural death a long time before the re­
forms started. The ’Court' had consisted of one vex:y venal eld man,
who received no salary for his duties^! depenued for his livlihood
on subsidKles paid him by the Nakhudas themselves. From my arrival

in January '31 till the introduction of reforms in iy«;4 I do not
recollect a single oase in whioh a diver obtained redress in the
Salifeh court. In faotx* at that time, accounts when kept (generally '
there v/ere none) by Nakhudas/were so completely unintelligible that
even had the Salifeh Court been reasonably just-which was notorious'
-ly not the case-it..would liave been incapbblo of arriving at any
decision. As a result of this state of affairs for a year or more,

before the institution of reforms,divero who were protected per­
sons k who appoaled to* the Agency for redress,when informed that
the only machinery for dealing with their cases was the 'Salifeh',
invariably dropped their oasesias the result was a foregone con­
clusion,^. the fact that they had complained,antagonised the Hsdchud<