Page 54 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

but tell me one thing—your wife, she can read and write, did she learn
here in Bahrain, or did she, too, go to a school?’ I assured him that she,
too, had been to a school, which seemed completely to reassure him.
The inception of girls’ schools was due to Marjorie. In the early years
she held no official position, although she took such an active part in
school affairs, but in 1930 the Shaikh appointed her as Directress of Girls’
Education. By this time she was doing a full-time job. She used to leave
the house every morning after breakfast and rarely returned before
luncheon-time and on some days the school work occupied her all
through the afternoon. One of the subjects which interested her much
was sewing and embroidery, and at this the girls were very clever. An
exhibition of needlework was held every year; at one time it was held in
the Manama palace, which was lent for the occasion by the Shaikh. There
were separate days for men and women and thousands of people used to
attend the show. Arabs and Europeans would stand in queues before the
doors were open in order to get in first to buy the clothes and embroidery
which were for sale. Lingerie and ‘sheer’ nightgowns were very popular
among the young Shaikhs.
By 1956, the year before we left Bahrain, Marjorie and her excellent*?
Lebanese Assistant, Mrs Nair, were in charge of 13 girls’ schools contain­ 1 personally with many things and I felt nearer to the people than in after-
ing over 4000 girls, with a staff of 135 women teachers, of whom 94 had
themselves been educated in the Bahrain schools. On the whole, girls’
education was more satisfactory and ran more smoothly than that of the
boys. In 1956 boys and girls sat for the same examination; at the end of
the term, out of the four top pupils, three, including the first one, were
girls, which caused complete consternation in the boys’ education de­
partment, for between them and the girls’ schools there was strong
rivalry.
* —
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Nine
Henceforth a series of new times began.
Absalom and Achitophel. John Dryden. 1631-1701
he steady increase in revenue from oil brought an end to my
worries about the financial position. It seemed that Bahrain was
entering a new era of prosperity such as it had enjoyed in the
earliest days of history. But the transition of Bahrain from a country
depending on pearl fishing, trade and agriculture, into an oil-producing
state, with a refinery which was at one time the fourth largest in the
world, created difficulties and problems which I had not been faced with
; before. Life in the pre-oil age was pleasanter. Then I had time to deal
years. When there were numbers of Government departments, com-
mittees and Arab and European officials, much of my time had to be spent
in smoothing out the difficulties which occurred between the staff.
Most afternoons Marjorie and I drove into the country. In the spring,
after the rains, though the average rainfall was only two to three inches a
year, pale-green grass covered much of the desert and parts of the island
were very beautiful. At sunset the mountain and the Shaikh s white
houses at Sakhir took on a warm pink glow; I tried often to paint it, but
the afterglow never lasted long enough. We often drove to the old ruined
Portuguese fort on the coast near Manama which, according to the Arabs,
was haunted, as well it might be, for those old stone walls had witnessed
many a grisly contest. I once camped out, in the summer, below the
walls of the fort. My servants almost went on strike at the idea of sleeping
so close to it; they swore that it was inhabited by jinns which would
appear in the night.
The Portuguese invaded the Gulf at the beginning of the sixteenth
century; they occupied the island of Hormuz, off the Persian coast, where
there was a city of fabulous wealth and luxury. To this jewelled signet of
a golden ring’ came merchants from the Orient trading in silks, precious
stones, cloths of silver and gold, wines and spices and ‘a great store of
P.C.—G 97