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144 PREFACE TO THE 1972 EDITION
A Primary School in Muharraq
C.D.B. visiting a school’ 144 By James H. D. Belgra ve
Shaikh Sulman with C.D.B. at Richmond Horse
Show, 1953 145 PERSONAL COLUMN tells the story of thirty years of
Bahrain's history, from 1926, almost half a century ago, when
Shaikh Sulman with Sir Winston Churchill at 10
my father, Sir Charles Belgrave as he was later to become, first
Downing Street 145
arrived in these islands, to 1957, the year he retired. These
In Washington 145 thirty-one years saw the rule of Shaikh Hamed and of Shaikh
The Muharram Procession. Chest beaters 192 Sulman, the decline of the pearl industry, the discovery of oil,
The Muharram Procession. Head cutters 192 the Second World War and the growing political awareness that
came to Bahrain in the 1950's as the inevitable result of the
192
An Arab war dance educational, social and economic progress that hadoccurredin
In Court 193 the Islands.
193 Many of principal characters that figure in PERSONAL
A Palace dinner party
208 column are no longer alive. Shaikh Sulman was succeeded by his
In Manama bazaar, as it was
208 son Shaikh Isa, the present Amir, in 1961; the leaders of the
On the road to Awali political movement, in the 1950's are dead or in retirement, the
Bab al Bahrain. Government offices 208 British diplomats who figured in the history of Bahrain have
Shore near Manama, where the ancient capital of largely left the service, and my father died in 1970.
Bahrain, 2000 B.c., is being excavated 209 For this reason personal column,although written as
209 an autobiography, is today history, a commentary and a
My house on Jidda Island
description of the events in Bahrain during three decades as
viewed by someone who was closely involved with them. Some
MAP of these views and comments are inevitably controversial — they *
facing page 7 may be agreed with or argued about by today's readers — but
The Bahrain Islands
• - they represent an eyewitness report on the Bahrain of yesterday
that is valuable for understanding the Bahrain of today. For
this reason I was delighted when the Librairie du Liban expressed
a wish to republish personal column.
In conclusion, I would like to reproduce a comment made
by Sir Charles Belgrave which appeared in his introduction to
the Bahrain Government report of December 1937, one that is
as true of Bahrain today as it was then.
«In other Gulf States, Bahrain is considered very
progressive; the wish to be progressive comes from the people
themselves, it is not forced upon them by the Government »

JAMES H.D. BELGRAVE
• MANAMA, BAHRAIN

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