Page 217 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

CONCLUSION

1TIFE in the Persian Gulf today depends on oil; 150 years ago,
it was centred on piracy. The smoke which now rises in
| ythe daytime, and the flares which light the night sky above
the oil fields, which arc visible for many miles, arc caused by
burning off gas. At one time, conflagrations such as these, would
have signified the destruction of villages by pirate hordes.
There have been more changes in the Persian Gulf in the last
forty years than during the last century and a half. Oil, air travel
and wireless have changed the Gulf Arabs more than any other
developments. Wealth from oil has provided schools, hospitals
and many social services for the people of the oil states, and has
given well paid employment to Arabs from the Shaikhdoms
where no oil has been found. Air travel, wireless and tele­
vision have enabled the Gulf Arabs to realise how the rest of
the world lives, and to mingle with people of other races and
religions.
The degree of change in different parts of the Gulf has depended
upon whether or not oil is being produced in the state. Kuwait,
in Loch’s time, was a small Arab settlement, which he only
mentions once in his diary. Forty years ago, it was a quiet,
pleasant little Arab coast town, whose people were comfortably
prosperous from pearl diving, boat building and trade. Today,
it is a metropolis, the El Dorado of the Middle East. It looks
more like a flamboyant American city than a Persian Gulf port,
with a population enormously swollen by immigrants from all
over the Middle East.
Bahrain has always been a comparatively thriving country.
From earliest times it was a commercial entrepot, for centuries it
was the centre of the pearl industry, and it had the great advantage
of having plenty of fresh water for agriculture. Loch describes
it as a flourishing place, and that description fits it today. It was
the first state in the Gulf in which oil was found, but it has the
smallest oil field in the Middle East. Its income has risen from
£90,000 in 1926 to about £6,000,000 in 1965. But this cannot
be compared to the enormous revenue of Kuwait, which is more
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