Page 271 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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GENERAL REVIEW
While writing a report on the administration of the State during 1365 I
have included under each heading a short note surveying the work of every depart­
ment since it came into being. Ten years ago I wiote a report dealing with the
administration from 1926 until 1936, the present report covers briefly the period
from 1936 to 1946.
Financially the year 1365 was a successful one, the revenue amounted to
69J lakhs of which 27 J lakhs were derived from customs duty, which is an indication
of the flourishing state of trade. The pearl catch was sold, in Bahrain, for a price
which was the highest on record for many years and generally the people of the
country continued to enjoy war-time prosperity. There was no unemployment,
rather, in many trades, &. shortage of labour due partly to Bahrain Arabs going to
work in Saudi Arabia where wages were high but the cost of living was still higher.

Rationing and price controls were continued though restrictions were
removed from the sale of a few non-essential imported goods. It had been hoped
that during the year rationing could be discontinued but owing to the state of
world food supplies the prospect of an end of rationing and controls still seems to
be far distant. The cost of living in Bahrain did not decrease to any perceptible
degree, but it continued to be very much lower than in neighbouring countries,
and there was no advance in labour wages or tendency towards inflation.
The state of public security was good ; there was a falling off in war-time
offences such as Black Market trading and smuggling, there were fewer cases of
theft, though pilfering from ships’ cargo in the port was on a large scale, and there
was a great improvement in traffic discipline.
The arrival of goods from England, including motor vehicles and building
materials, which had been ordered during the previous year, made it possible
for the Government to begin various important public works which were held up
during the previous years owing to the lack of such things as cement, wood and
steel beams. The largest work on which a start was made during 1365 was the
Manama town building scheme, in the neighbourhood of the Customs, in the centre
of the town, which includes reclaiming an area of sea, rebuilding the customs sheds
and the construction of nine shops, a Post Office, a Police Station and a large
block of offices. The construction of new premises for the P.W.D. with offices,
sheds and a compound, was commenced on ground which is being reclaimed from
the sea on the south edge of the Manama-Muharraq causeway.
There was expansion during the year in the work of the Medical and Educa­
tion Departments, a large house in Muharraq was bought by the Government to
be converted into a new Women's Hospital and the Secondary School moved
into new quarters so that the old Secondary School could be absorbed into the
school hostel, which is the only Boarding School in the Gulf.

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