Page 19 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

wife will discuss the matter. Everybody seems satisfied with this solution
and, very thankfully, we watch the family leave the court.
In the early days most of the eases concerned the diving industry. To
deal with these I compiled a Diving Law, including all the old unwritten
rules as well as the new, unpopular, regulations. At the risk of damaging
a reputation for impartiality I must admit that I felt a strong sympathy
for the divers, but it was some years before they realized that the rules
which the court enforced were for their own good. Once I said to a hard
old boat captain, who had been swindling his divers, ‘You arc more like
a shark than a man.’ To my surprise he took it as a compliment'and told
all his friends what the Adviser had called him.
We passed eases relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance to the
Kadhis, who judged them according to Islamic law. In matters of local
custom we consulted a long-established institution known as the ‘Maglis
Tajara’—mercantile committee. Often after cases had come into court
they were settled out of court by arbitration or through friends of the
parties. In disputes about boundaries, fish traps and water rights, which
were numerous, the court used to appoint an arbitrator and each of the
parties appointed a representative. By these means the cases were usually
settled. Arabs enjoy acting as peace-makers, a successful arbitrator gains
kudos by resolving the disputes of his friends and neighbours. Busy men
used gladly to give time to help the court, though this often involved visits
to distant gardens or trips to sea to examine fish traps. But nowadays they
are less willing to undertake such duties.
The Shaikh himself sat, with the Political Agent, or his representative,
in the ‘Joint court’ where cases brought by foreigners against Bahrain
subjects were heard. Cases by Bahrain subjects against foreigners were
heard in the Agency court. This arrangement still continues, but in recent
years many more nationalities have come under the jurisdiction of the
Bahrain Government though Europeans, Americans and people of the
Commonwealth are still under British jurisdiction. I always regarded it
as unsuitable that the Ruler of the country should sit on the court, but the
practice has gone on for so long that it has become an established custom.
In July we left our temporary home, which was beginning to show
signs of collapsing, and moved to the fort, the headquarters of the
‘Levies’, a body of armed police. They were a tough crowd, about 200
strong, -recruited in Muscat. They were negroes, Baluchis and men of
mixed breed; some spoke Swahili, which I had learnt in East Africa. The
Bahrain Shaikhs used to have a bodyguard of Baluchis, like the Swiss
Guard at the Vatican, and they were well thought of in Bahrain. There
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