Page 91 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

but because I kept a tight hold of the purse strings I incurred unpopularity demanded more schools, so every year more schools were built and
in many quarters. It was the Shaikh’s and my policy to add a certain opened.
proportion of the revenue each year to the Reserve Fund, which was For some time we had been sending a few boys every year for
advanced education to the Junior School of the American University of
invested in England in Government stock, so as to build up a fund which
would supplement the revenue when the income from oil decreased. This Beirut, the A.U.B., which was the best educational institution in the
Middle East. In 1950 the first two Bahrain boys obtained their degrees
was not a popular idea, and since I left Bahrain I see that the plan for
saving money has been given up. The Bahrainis regarded the oil as being from the A.U.B. This arrangement was, on the whole, successful, although
inexhaustible, and they looked on Bahrain as a Welfare State which they there was a tendency among the students to choose subjects in which
they thought they could most easily get a degree rather than subjects
defined as a State with no taxation, where all public services, medical,
educational and otherwise, should be provided free for rich and poor. My in which they were really interested. There were great opportunities in
Bahrain for Arab doctors, and I tried to encourage some of the young men
attempts to reduce expenditure and to encourage some of the departments who we sent to the A.U.B. to study medicine and eventually practise as
t to earn more money met with little co-operation. An example of this was doctors among their own people. For a long time none of them would
the Manama Municipality, a lethargic institution heavily subsidized by
the Government, which never seemed to have sufficient funds to carry out consider this, the length of time which the training took deterred them,
although they were being paid for by the Government. But eventually
its obligations to the public. We used to allow the municipalities to run
a number of young men did decide to study medicine, and one of them
their own shows with occasional suggestions from the Government. The
main revenue of the Municipality was from shop and house taxes. Those is now at a college in England.
There are snobs among the Arabs as well as among the British, and
on leased buildings were paid by the tenants, most of whom were
sometimes one becomes aware of a colour complex. A young man who
foreigners, and were quite reasonable; but in the case of houses occupied
was studying medicine in Beirut, who was dark, with some African
by the owners, which included all the houses belonging to the rich
blood, came back to Bahrain on leave. He went to call on some high-class
merchants and shopkeepers, the maximum tax was seven-and-six a month.
Arabs and one of them said to him, ‘What subject arc you studying at
When I suggested a reassessment of the taxes on privately occupied houses
Beirut?’ The young man replied, ‘I am learning to be a doctor,’ at which
there was a squeal of indignation from the Council, and all but one or
the Arab muttered to one of his friends: ‘Him—a doctor! He must be
two members strongly opposed my suggestion. Several times I tried to
descended from slaves. I would never employ a doctor in my house who
get my proposal accepted, but without success.
was dark.’I remember some of the excellent doctors whom I came across in
Education continued to be a permanent ‘pain in the neck’. I often
the Sudan and in Egypt; many of them were much darker than this young
wondered whether in the long run it did not do more harm than good to
man, but then I never had any feeling about colour.
the people of Bahrain, but this nowadays is a most unacceptable belief.
Every year a larger proportion of the population became literate, to the
extent of being able to read and write, but I do not think they were any
t happier than they used to be. Although most of the education was very
superficial the so-called educated young men considered that manual
labour was beneath them and they expected to be provided with ‘white
collar’ jobs which did not exist. None of the boys acquired at school any
of those intangible qualities such as esprit de corps, pride in physical fitness,
discipline, or sense of service which boys in Western schools used to
possess—but perhaps in Welfare States these qualities are no longer con­
sidered necessary! I suppose I expected too much from the schools and
was inclined to compare them to public schools in England, for I must
confess that I found the results very disappointing. However, the public
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