Page 10 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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as labourers, masons, gardeners and watchmen. In addition to these people
many Indians entered the country and set up in business as shopkeepers, tailors
and washermen ; at the end of the year in the Manama bazaar alone there were 215
shops occupied by Indians. The large proportion of foreigners now resident in
Manama was regarded with some resentment by many of the local Arabs but at the
same time it did not discourage them from leaving their own country to work
abroad for higher wages.
During the year the Government increased its expenditure on Social Ser­
vices, Public Protection and Public Works. At the end of the year the Manama
Town Water Supply was almost completed and the installation of an automatic
telephone system by Cable and Wireless was nearly ready.
Affairs outside Bahrain caused certain repercussions inside the country,
the only serious result of the Palestine war was an unfortunate incident at the
beginning of the year when a demonstration against the partition of Palestine
developed into an anti-Jewish riot. The revival of the Persian claim to Bahrain
was not regarded seriously by the ordinary Arab.

C. DALRYMPLE BELGRAVE, C.B.E.,
Adviser to the Government of Bahrain.