Page 98 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

decor and lighting myself with glass chandeliers from Venice in the
of a large new women’s hospital and also for a T.B. hospital so that
audience-room and gilt candelabra from Florence in the dining-room. tubercular cases could be treated in Bahrain instead of being sent to a
A member of the peerage came out to Bahrain soon after the palace was
sanatorium in India. This disease was very prevalent in Bahrain. The T.B.
completed. I was told, afterwards, that she had hoped to be invited to hospital was opened at the beginning of 1956 and the women’s hospical
design the-interior decoration. She was entertained by the Shaikh. After was not fully completed until some time after I left Bahrain.
returning to England she wrote a very ill-natured article in a ‘glossy’,
I launched two other schemes for improving living conditions. One
making fun of the dinner party which the Shaikh gave for her, describing was the building of numbers of small stone houses for working people,
him as looking like an American woman columnist. provided with water and electricity, which were let at low rents; the other
The health and education of his people were two matters in which
was a system of loans for Government employees for buying land and
the Shaikh took a great interest and on which a large proportion of the
building houses. The housing plan was a success. There was keen compe­
revenue was spent. Personally I regarded health as being more important
tition to rent the houses which were allotted to labourers with small
than education. The development of medical services, which made rapid
incomes and large families who lived in barastis, palm-branch huts. The
strides, was not without difficulties. As we employed more doctors and
loan scheme was not such a success, for I discovered that most of the
nurses and opened more clinics and hospitals, I noticed a tendency among people who took loans built nice little modem houses, but instead of
upper-class young men to develop into hypochondriacs. They took an
living in them they let them, very profitably, usually to foreigners, and
unnaturally keen interest in their health, enjoying discussing symptoms,
continued to occupy their own insanitary homes.
cures and medicines. Such medical details as blood pressure was a subject
Another more personal project, in which Marjorie and I were greatly
for normal conversation. Two young Arabs were talking about this. One
interested, was that we should have an Anglican church and a resident
of them said to me, ‘And what does your blood pressure register?’ When
priest in Bahrain. This became possible when, with the coming of the oil
I said ‘I have no idea. It is years since I had it tested,’ they were quite
company, the European population increased. We formed a Church
shocked and told me that they had their blood pressure checked every
Committee of which I was for many years the chairman. There was a
fortnight. There seemed to be no reason for this.
licensed lay reader at Awali and the company allowed a building to be
Shops selling patent medicines did a roaring trade and private
used as a church, but services there were not always Anglican. The success
medical practitioners flourished by giving injections. Patients attending
of our project was greatly due to Henry Weston Stewart, who came as a
clinics and hospitals had an almost superstitious belief in the efficacy of
priest to St George’s Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem in the same year as
injections, which they regarded as a cure for all maladies. Patients who
we came to Bahrain; later he became the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem,
were given pills or medicine usually threw them away and then went the
and one of our closest friends.
round of the doctors until they found one who would give them a
The Committee set out to collect money to build a church. BAPCO,
‘needle’, as they called it. Ideas of medical etiquette were non-existent.
British firms in Bahrain and private individuals helped us generously. I
Patients would go from one doctor to another, not telling them that they
asked the Shaikh for a piece of ground and he gave us a site near the fort.
had been treated before. The more educated people had a similar belief
Sir Geoffrey Prior, who had been Political Agent in Bahrain and then
in X-rays. They demanded an X-ray examination for every kind of
Resident in the Gulf, presented a set of beautiful coloured-glass windows,
complaint, and if it was not forthcoming they went away saying, ‘He is
which are such a striking feature of the church. They were made by the
no good as a doctor.’ Accommodation in the hospitals was limited and
Rev R. N. Sharp, a missionary in Persia, who collected old pieces of
there were very few private wards, but important Arabs considered that
Persian glass and created from them exquisite windows. St Christopher’s
they should be given private rooms for themselves or their families
Church was built and dedicated by the Bishop on March 13th, 1953.
whenever they demanded them, usually without any notice. If patients . i
What few people realized was that the money for building the church and,
occupied the rooms they expected the doctors to turn the patients out. In i later, a vicarage and a church hall and for providing the chaplain s stipend,
these matters the Arabs showed an entirely undemocratic attitude. In 1952
had to be found from local sources. There was no grant from Government
I obtained the Shaikh’s approval to provide in the Budget for the building
or ecclesiastical authorities in England to pay for a church in Bahrain.
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