Page 28 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

them and though a search was made they were not found. Four or five
years later the owner of the pearls was in Bombay, He saw and recognized
one of his lost pearls among some which were being sold by a Hindu
merchant. The pearl had passed through several hands, but it was traced
back to the shopkeeper, who eventually admitted that he had picked up
the pearls outside his shop and sold them.
When,I first arrived in Bahrain Daly warned me not to let my wife
V' • . take an interest in pearls. I found it quite impossible to follow this advice
I and I collected a necklace of black pearls, which took me eleven years to
complete. Quite a number of black pearls used to be found in the Gulf,
but in recent years they are rarely found. There is no explanation for this
A dhow being rowed phenomenon and I have not been able to discover whether black pearls
are becoming scarce in other parts of the world where there are fisheries.
I was constantly asked whether pearls could be bought cheaply in
Bahrain. If one has patience and plenty of time it is possible to acquire a
necklace for a good deal less than one would pay in London or Paris by
buying the pearls one by one. One more story about pearls. In later years,
in the oil era, the Bahrain Petroleum Company decided to print a slogan
on letters dispatched from their post office, to advertise local industries.
‘Pearls, Progress and Prosperity’ was, I think, the final choice, but I
thought my composition was very much better. Mine was ‘Drape your
girls in Bahrain pearls’.
By 1932 the diving industry was in a precarious state. It was suffering
from the competition from cultured pearls and, being a luxury trade, it
was very hard hit by the financial depression in Europe. Many of the boat-
owners and pearl merchants were finding it extremely difficult to raise
funds to equip the diving fleet and the Government itself was in no
position to help them with a loan. When the time came for making the
advances to the divers some of the merchants and captains found that they
* were unable to find the money.
Divers were not paid wages but shared in the profits which were got
by the sale of the pearls, and at the beginning of the season and once during
the off season they were paid an advance by their captains which was
debited against their earnings in the next season. This advance payment
:• -f in cash always attracted men to the diving industry. They seemed to for­
get that it was a loan on which they had to pay interest. Having taken an
advance the diver was compelled to work for the captain during the
following season. The captain usually borrowed money from a merchant
or shopkeeper on shore to equip and provision his dhow and to pay the
advances to his divers, but the shore merchant charged interest on his
P.C.—D 49
A diver wearing
protective clothing
against jelly-fish