Page 280 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

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268 Records oj Bahrain
such a treatise,but pressure of other work hun mu.de it impossible to

produce it. Perhaps when the ’Adviser has taken over some of t.ho
work T. now deal with(I shall be able to get on with it.
I have gone into the question oi' a Salifeh Court thoroughly
and am convinced that at this juncturo ,it would bo imposDiblo to
find anyone capable of doing tho work, (I refer to the work as it is
now-in tho transition stage(during which abuses are being eliminated
* pact accounts otraightenod out) * that if we could x^atoh up some­
thing ,the imiu'ovements effected would be doomed,* great labour

wasted. In two years I estimate the new system will be in full owing
* then any court, 1 Sal if eh' or otherwise,would be able to deal with
tho situation. Then however,wlien the abuses have been checked,*
accounts arc on a wimple basis,* large debts practically non-exist-
-ant,you will not find anybody wanting a 'Salifeh court, llany of the
enlightened Nakhudaw already say this - a 'Salifeh* is no use to
them unices run on the old(unjust lines.

. The petition presented just before my return was an effort
of the die-hards among the eld tyx>o of Nakhuda ,& its unreason­
ableness is xiatent.lt amounts to a demand fertile divers to be com­
pletely under their control * for them to be able to imprison l:
punish at will. This being so^it mky be assumed that tho desire
for a 'Salifeh' court is not for a reformed 'Salifehjworking on
the new lines-prohibiting abuses-but for the old 'Sallfoh',which
means no court at all. Many of the Nakhudas have told me that the
petition was regarded by them ac a jeet(* they knew that it was

doomed to failure,& dissociated themselves from it.
I hpvltgioe for the length of this ’letter ,but I have endeavoured
to show as concisely aw is possible,how the situation stands,&
that the demand for a 'Salifeh1 court is not genuine,* by no means
insistent,that its creation at this stage would completely jeopar­
dise the reforms in the pearling which are,without doubt, the most
important i>art of the whole reforms uoheme * which will have a
lasting Sr. desirable effect on the whole State.of Bahrain.

Yours sincerely—

Capt, B. Stuart-Horner. Secretary to the Political Resident(Busliir
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