Page 354 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (I)_Neat

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Pearl industry.

pearls, rtsherinn was about 20$ higher than the market price

during the previous season.
Unfortunately however most of the big merchants still
have on their hands very large stocks of icarls which they

purchased three or four years ago, at high prices, which
they cannot afford to sell at a loss, If they sold these

pearls now, at the market price, perhaps for half what
they paid for them, many of them would become ..liable to
make payments which they still owe and which fall due when
the pearls are sold.

4. Divers debts. The divers during the last season
fared even worse than they did during the previous season.
Although the amount of the advances were reduced by the

government to the very minimum and owing to the low price
of rice etc. the cost of victualling bo.ats was less than

last year, out of 354 boats the divers of only 6 boats
Selafieh made any profit. The earnings of the rest were
not sufficient to cover the amounts which they had advanced

and their share in the cost of rations etc. So at the
end of the season the divers had increased their debts
to their nakhudas and received nothing except the advances

which had been debited against them.
5. Comparisons between seasons. I have stated before

(annual report 1350, page 12) that it is difficult to arrive
at an accurate estimate of the season1 s takings. The
figures which I refer to for the purpose of estimates are

those of the authorised diving clerks, These men make up
the accounts between divers and their nakhudas, so the
prices which they ^uote are the original "rock bottom”

prices paid for pearls. These clerks have no means of