Page 173 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (I)_Neat

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in the diving trade which increases their prestige and power.
?tete of pearl market is said to be the result of

the disturbed condition of India, the recent financial crisis
in America, and the increased production of cultured pearls.
It is to be hoped that the conditions in India end America will
soon improve, but the question of cultured pearlsis not a temp-
orary matter, The authorities in 3ahrain cannot prevent this
trade, but they do all that^ossible to prohibit the importation
t-
or circulation of cultured pearls in 3ahruin so that Bahrain
may acquire and retain the reputation of exporting only real
pearls.
The general condition of divers is gradually improving
and this improvement is due entirely to the*diving reforms**
whose beneficial results are now beginning to appear, Host
of the older divers are so heavily in debt that only de*th will
free them, but the youger men who started to dive shortly before
or after the diving reforms are no longer heavily in debt, They •
frequently earn enogh to cancel their debts so that they can dive
with v/hoever they wish to, and quite a large proportion owe only
four or five hundred Rupees which under the present system they
should be sble to -ay Z5Z off in .three or four years.
The merchants dislike the freeing of the divers very much
indeed and I am sure that very shortly determined efforts will
be made to revert to the old system. It is when the effects
of the reforms become apparent that the critical time hif will

occur. A very harmful practice has crept in lately by which
hakhudus evade the regulations. The merchants make advances
of money and to their divers charging heavy interest on a
side account which is not checked by the diving clerks and is
not entered in the divers books. The courts do not regard these
debts as binding the divers to dive but the men themslvis are
ignorant end many of them beleive. that these side debts ere as
binding as the ref^uler advances.
The tine for the Sellnf, which is the advance before the
season ocurred at the end of t: e ye?r. After the usu\l feg-