Page 200 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (I)_Neat

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of l/4th to his original ilakhudc.

Jabr bin Msallem, one of tl.e biggest men in the trade,
owner of cbout thirty boats, was away when the meeting ccurred
with Shaikh Abdulla bin Iso. A procloou. ticn wos issued accor-

ding to the terms arranged at the neetin.g. Sliaikh Abdulla
end Jabr bin Msallem returned. Hone of the Nakhudas gave
their divers any advances neither did they give them n3aruas"
and deputations of merchants called on the Shaikh asking him

to revise the proclamation, The divers complained and
several hundreds of them marched out-nto Sakhir to see the

Shaikh, however he sent them a message telling them to /;o back
to Manana. There was a certain amount of alarm in the bazaar.
The following day H. E, Shaikh Hamad came to Manama, He took
a very strong line, decided that the rights of the divers were

bein^ abused by the merchants end himself drafted a proclama­
tion ordering the advances as lcid down to be paid ,;ithin

five days failing hich the government would release all
divers who were not paid their advances, and allow them to
dive freely during the ne..t season. The suggestion of the
n3aruas" for l/4th or l/3rd earnings was cancelled.

About half the divers were paid their advances, though
in most cases not the full amount, many thousands were given

free baruas by the government, and the remainder were either
.jiven baruas by their nakhudas or esme to an agreement with them.
THE SELAF ADVANCE, The next advance will be due about a

fortnight before the diviner starts, this vear the Rekba will
be on Huharram, the liyot day of 1350.. It is quite impos­
sible for trede to revive before then so it is expected that

cost of the Nakhudas will release their divers in which case
very few boats will go out for the new season, The Selafieh
system, for the time being, will almost cease and divers who
can collect a few hundred rupees will hire a boat and go out