Page 10 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

swords swinging round their legs, had to leap, nervously, from a bobbing
skiff on to the slippery pier steps, watched by the anxious reception com­
mittee waiting above, with the Guard of Honour and the Band of the
State Police behind them. Few people under the circumstances preserved
a dignified mien. Now most people travel by air and visitors arriving by
ship can. come alongside in launches, for the pier extends a quarter of a
Two mile into the sea. But until the deep-water pier, which is under con­
struction, is built, steamers still anchor about three miles from the shore.
Daly met us on the pier with a car. There were about a dozen cars in
The island is a pleasant oasis. Tt is friendly, not hateful like die Bahrain—today there are over 7000. He drove us to the Agency, making
abominable coast that faces it. It is not antagonistic to life and a wide detour round the back of the town; there was only a footpath
docs not breed such a missing link as the littoral Arab. . . . The along the! sea front and the bazaar lanes were too narrow for motor
goldcn-dustcd roads which cross it are broad and shaded on either traffic. The Agency was on the shore, a large building with deep verandas
side by long forests of date palms, deepening into an impenetrable and many windows, both in the outer walls and inside the house, to
greenness, cool with the sound of wind among the great leaves allow air to circulate. It was built in 1900, at a cost of £2000, and was
and the tinkle of flowing water.
then described as ‘a most commodious and imposing residence’. During
Ben Kendim. Aubrey Herbert. Written of Bahrain in 1905
half a century it was altered and enlarged and propped up dll one morning
in 1954, without any warning, the roof subsided and demolished the
dining-room a few minutes after the occupants had finished breakfast.
D uring the last thirty years few things have changed more visibly was built in 1955. In Daly’s time there were hand-pulled punkahs in the
A new Agency, with an entrance resembling the foyer of a cinema,
! in Bahrain than the view from the sea of Manama, the capital of
the State. Looking across the brilliant blue water from the deck
rooms, but in the winter, when storms lashed the waves over the front of
of the Patrick Stewart, on the morning of our arrival, I saw a squat line of
mud-coloured houses along the shore with no buildings of any height, no the building, it was a very cold house, in spite of fires in the rooms. We were
minarets and nothing green, except westward where date-groves came hospitably received by Daly and his wife, but it was not till some time later
that I discovered that they had expected me to come alone. I had written
down to the water’s edge. Today a wide road runs along the sea front
lined with high white houses with deep-shadowed verandas, the skyline telling Daly of my engagement but he had not received my letter saying
that I had married and was bringing my bride. However, the Dalys were
is pierced with tall minarets and in places there are groups of trees among
the buildings. extremely kind and gave no indication that they had been taken unawares.
During our stay Daly showed me round and introduced me to the
We disembarked into a launch, then, reaching shallow water, trans­
leading people. Being Ramadhan the Arabs were fasting during the day­
ferred into a skiff which took us to a short, stone pier. Lord Curzon, then
time and the place was quieter than usual. Manama, and the neighbouring
Viceroy of India, visited Bahrain in 1901, before the pier had been com­ !
pleted. That ‘most superior person’ was carried ashore from the boat in a ! town of Muharraq, on the adjacent island, were typical Arab coast towns.
The houses were built of coral stone, quarried from the sea bed at low
chair to which poles had been attached. Fortunately he arrived without
tide; few houses had more than two storeys. The streets were narrow and
mishap. This odd equipage was kept outside the office of the Political
congested, roofed with palm-branch matting; the little shops, with
Agent as an object of historical interest. Years later, one of the Political
wooden shutters, contained few European goods. Fish, meat and vege­
Residents, whose nickname was ‘God’, was carried ashore in the same
tables were sold in fly-infested matting booths. The only buildings of any
chair, the ostensible reason being that he was suffering from gout, but I
pretensions were the Agency, the houses of the American Mission (die
believe he really wanted to emulate Lord Curzon.
Dutch Reformed Church of America) and the office of the Mesopotamia
Even when the pier was built official arrivals were not very dignified
• Persia Corporation, agents of the British India shipping line.
proceedings. When the tide was low, distinguished visitors, with their
16 p.c.—a 17