Page 64 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat
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or over-charging; it was a pleasant change to inaugurate a plan which had
popular support! Sonic of the leading merchants were co-operative, but
most of them regarded the very reasonable amount of profit which wc
allowed as being inadequate. After some time, instead of investing our
surplus revenue in the Reserve Fund, the Government began to buy,
Eleven directly, all the essential food supplies which were needed for the country
and to sell them in special shops to ration-card holders. My friends used
to laugh when they saw me, a staunch Tory, operating a scheme which
... let us sit upon the ground, was definitely Socialistic.
And tell sad stories of the death of Kings. At the beginning of 1941 the first Census ever held in Bahrain was
Richard II. Shakespeare successfully carried out, and this helped considerably with the ration
scheme. There were some difficulties over the Census. Many people
believed that it was a prelude to taxation—there is no taxation in Bahrain
T\uring 1939 and 1940 Bahrain was not greatly affected by the —others thought that all able-bodied men were going to be enlisted and
jj 1 war, though there was a sharp increase in the cost of living and
sent as soldiers to Europe, and finally a rumour became current that no
shortage of some imported goods. In the 1914 war there had woman would be ‘allowed’ to produce a baby except in jhe Government
been a boom in pearls, people in Europe bought them because they were Hospital, though nobody considered how such a drastic step could be
a good investment and could be carried easily, so the pearl merchants enforced. After I had toured the villages and assured everybody that the
hoped that the same thing would occur again, but. there was no revival
object of the Census was simply to find out how many people there were
of the pearl industry. Fortunately, when war seemed imminent, I had
in Bahrain, so that we could arrange for them to be fed, the objections
managed to obtain a large amount of rice from Rangoon, enough to feed were withdrawn and the counting took place throughout the night of
Bahrain for several months, and while we still had this supply I introduced
January 21st, 1941. On that night the towns and villages of Bahrain ap
price control and rationing of essential food such as ri£c, flour, sugar and peared like dead cities, except for the little groups of men with lanterns,
tea. The price control was so successful that it became a profitable enter books and papers, going from house to house in every street. I spent the
prise to smuggle food out of Bahrain to the neighbouring states where night on horseback riding through the streets and villages to sec how the
there was no control, and prices of essential commodities rose sky-high. In
work progressed; nowhere did we meet with any difficulty or obstruction.
Bahrain, as in other countries, some people made fortunes out of Black The Arabic word which was used for ‘Ration Card* was ‘Bataka’ and
Market dealings in spite of the severe punishments which were given to after the war Marjorie was surprised to find that many of the little black
those who were caught. Even today Arabs will point out some fine house ■ girls at school, from negro families, were named ‘Bataka’—elsewhere
in Manama or in one of the villages, saying, ‘That house was built on ration cards are not things which people wish to perpetuate in their
Black Market profits/
memory.
The rationing system worked surprisingly well, but it involved a great For some years Shaikh Hamcd had not been in good health, and those
deal of organization. I set up a Food Control Department under the
who knew him were much concerned about him. When we were in
management of de Grenier, the Director of Customs, which continued to England in 1936 I persuaded him to see a specialist, who found that he
function for several years after the end of the war. Rationing was popular,
had diabetes, which is very prevalent in Bahrain, especially among the
except among a few of the merchants who watched enviously the for Khalifat family. The normaT'diet of the Bahrain Arabs, which includes a
tunes which were being made in the states where there was no control. great deal of rice and dates, probably aggravated the condition and it was
The ordinary people realized that they were getting exactly the same
almost impossible to persuade Shaikh Hamed to keep to a strict diet. The
treatment as everybody else; irrespective of class, colour or wealth and doctor ordered him to take insulin injections and a young servant who
they were not backward in coming forward to report cases of hoarding,
was with him was trained to give the injections, but after the visit, when
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