Page 283 - Records of Bahrain (4) (i)_Neat

The pearl industry, 1924-1927 271

<xU'o*jk_. 3.
proposed ohoulV^guide bhc^Cpupto. The first on this Hot was
thu Tioqari should he free but that Sallaf should be limited by
the ordero of the Bahrein Government. Shaikh Abdullah at Shaikh
Hamad's requeot came to diocuoo these articleo with me. He agreed
with me that there wao no differentiation between Tisqam and

Sallaf. I aoked Shaikh Abdullah to tell Shaikh Hamad to proceed
with the fixing of the amounts of Tisqam, setting if he liked a

maximum below which the Nakhoda and his crew would be at liberty
to come to an agreement, but 1 said that something ohould be
done as the crew and their families had to live and they relied
on TiBqom for maintenance.
Shaikh Hamad appears to have conferred with the merchants
and/*then went off hawking.
Three or four days ago Belgravc informed me that the Tisqam

had been fixed at Rs.80/- for divers and Ro.60/- for pullers,
and that theoc amounts were considered by the divers to be very
low. I informed Belgrave that 1 also considered them too low.
The next move was that on Thursday 30th December about 200
divers marched out to Kukhair where Shaikh Hamad wao hawking to
aBk him to increase the amount of the TiBqam. Shaikh Hamad
appears to have promised to give the matter consideration, and
fixed the divers up with some sort of accommodation for the night.

Yesterday nothing happened. This morning being Hew Year
day Shaikh Eoa, who has also been out hawking for the past week,
came in to call on me bringing a large number of hiB family
including Shaikh llamad. After the departure of Shaikh Esa for
lluharraq, Shaikhejllamad and Abdullah, who had seen him off, returned
to the Agency and told me about the visit of the divers to
Sukhair and aoked me if I thought the Tisqam was too low. I said
that the divers and their families relied on_the Tisqam for

maintenance and to pay past debts and that it was certainly too
low. They then agreed to raioe it to Ra.100/- and 80/), being
the same as last year and also to arrange, in the caoe of men,
the.whole of whose money went to repay paBt debts, that the
merchants should advance them rice until the Sallaf. They said
that before giving this out to the divers they wished to inform