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Government income rose steadily from Rs. 3,717,000 in 1939-40 to Rs. 5,634,000 in
1945-6 and there was considerable progress in the fields of health and education. In January a
new wing for women was added to the state hospital and a further ward and an administration
block opened in 1942. New dispensaries were set up in some of the villages. A smallpox scare
in 1941 was checked by mass innoculation. In 1940 there had been 3 girls’ schools with 450
pupils and in 1945 there were 5 with 1,139. The PA reported that such was the interest that a
play put on by the Girls school attracted more than 500 ladies, in addition to those who had
been invited — one of enormous size was observed sweeping the police out of her way to
obtain entry. Manama College was opened to give the best of the 13-14 year-old boys three
years’ further education in English. Hostel accommodation was provided for those whose
homes were in villages. To cope with the greater numbers some teachers were brought from
Egypt.

There was progress, too, in other matters. In November 1940 Bahrain Radio Station went
on the air and in January 1941 the country held its first census amidst excited speculation that
it would lead to conscription or a health service or food rationing or taxation or deportation of
Persians. It showed a population of just below 90,000. In December 1941 the bridge between
Manama and Muharraq was opened — an event which attracted a paragraph in The Times. In
November 1943 Bahrain saw its first Race Meeting and this was followed shortly afterwards
by another at which, amidst general satisfaction, the cup was won by the Shaykh’s mare and, to
Belgrave’s astonishment, even the American construction workers behaved quite respectably.
In May 1945 the Shaykh witnessed the first football match between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

In the early days of the war Bclgrave poopoohed two schemes which have since come to
pass. He dismissed the idea of a Gulf College as “weird — typical of the British Council” and
when Shaykhs Sulman, Muhammad and Abdullah spoke to him of the advantages of closer
co-operation among the Gulf states, he considered it “doubtless more talk”.

One little event during the war is worth a mention. In September 1942 the PA reported
that 200 large birds had been circling the Refinery. One crashed into it and its body enabled
them to be identified as storks. The one that died had been ringed in Lithuania. The PA
commented with astonishment that there was no local name for storks and contrary to other
parts of the Arab world where they are regarded almost with veneration, the local people
turned out to shoot at them. He added that the birth of a son to the wife of the Director of
Education on the very night that the storks appeared was presumbly mere coincidence.

After victory in May 1945 the PA gave a party with 100 guests at which, on behalf of the
British Government he thanked the Shaykh and his people for their friendship and help in five
difficult years. Free meals were served for 500 people in Manama, Muharraq and Hidd and so
much food was produced that the people took much of it away. These festivities were,
however, overshadowed by the party that the Shaykh gave at the palace. Four hundred guests,
many of them servicemen, the Americans amongst them greeting their host with “How do
Sheek”, consumed 79 plates of rice and meat. After tribesmen had danced with swords
flashing, the police band concluded the evening and the story of wartime Bahrain by playing
“Auld Lang Syne”.

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