Page 297 - Records of Bahrain (4) (ii)_Neat

Bahrain reforms, 1929 599

to take i10 coureo v/ithout any intervention on our part,he
would not have been ountod by hio more forceful brother

Abdullah. Had the latter succeeded things wouid probably
have been different but ae.it io we have to make the best
of thingo as they are. The only question that really
interests Shaikh Hamad Is the allowances of himself and
hie family, and the A1 Khalifa family have not abandoned
the former idea that tne taxes paid by the inhabitants are
the ±he just spoils of the Ruling .Family,
b. The revenues of Banrain amount to about id lakhs,
and of this 50;.* is paid to tne onaikh and iii3 relatives!

he ha3 maae constant efforts to get this sum of 5 lakhs
increased but both Colonel Barrett and a have informed him
that v/e consider it ample, and have refused to agree to
any increase.
Cri tne other hand Bahrain has practically only
one source of income, the customs, wnicn collect 97}» of
tiie total revenue, if the measure of control which is at

present exercised by Europeans in Banrain was sensibly
relaxed i think -there is very little doubt but that the
'revenues would be appreciably diminianed, and allowances
of the Ruling Family appreciably increased, and the result
would be, if not immediate insolvency, at any rate a com­
plete cessation of those educational, medical and oanitary

developments that we have brought about, anu wnich the
people of Bahrain now exp.et and clamour for.
4. «• ain in entire sympathy with the iuea tnat we
should work as far as pooaitle through an Arab administra­
tion! no one who has received his earliest training,as I
did in the Ealucnistan school could be otherwise, but we
must take account of the actual circumstances, We have a
ruler who, practically speaking, refuses to rule, and

there are no State subjects at present sufficiently educated
\ to fin the more important posts.
5. It may be aoked why we should not allow Bahrain to
be

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