Page 278 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

12
they liked it or not and most nakhudas were not generous to worn-out divers. Occasionally old divers
could give up the work by handing over their houses to their nakhudas as settlement for diving debts.
In spite of these conditions however when the Government tried to introduce reforms in the industry
the divers themselves objected almost as strongly as the merchants and nakhudas to any attempt to
improve their lot.

Reforms.—The reforms were forced through by Shaikh Hamed bin Isa in 1923-24, soon
after he had become Deputy Ruler, in the face of the most bitter opposition which was put up not
only by the diving community but by many people who had strong political motives for discrediting
the new regime. The moving spirit behind the reforms was Major C. K. Daly, the then Political
Agent in Bahrain. Only a few important and progressive Arabs supported the Government, among
these were the Sunni and the Shia Qadis. Few people today realise how important an achievement
was the carrying out of these reforms which caused so great a change in the conditions of thousands of
Bahrain pearl divers.
Among the changes which were made was the introduction of a regular system of accounts
which were checked by a staff of authorised diving clerks who worked under Government control.
Every nakhuda was made to keep a ledger containing his profit and loss account, showing expenses,
weight and value of pearls and shares of the divers and each diver was made to keep a book showing
his account with his nakhuda. Rates of interests were reduced and limited, the amount of the twice
yearly advances was in future decided by the Government, after consultation with the leading men
of the industry, advances in kind by nakhudas to divers were made illegal, the employment of divers
on other work without pay was forbidden and when a diver died his debt died with him. Many
thousands of divers had their debts reduced, the Salafieh Court was abolished and diving cases were
heard in the ordinary Bahrain Courts.

All these changes were intensely unpopular and were disliked by all branches of the diving
community. The divers, for whose benefit the reforms were introduced were easily persuaded by
their nakhudas that they would suffer from the new way of things. It was almost more difficult
to continue to enforce the new regulations than it had been to introduce them. Every year when
the day arrived for proclaiming the advances there were demonstrations and disturbances by the
divers which were encouraged by the nakhudas and by every one who was against the Government
and the anti-Govemment party at that time was powerful. On New Year’s day 1932 (1350) there
was a serious riot; mobs of divers started looting the Muharraq and Manama bazaars as a protest
against the Government's order about advances. The police were compelled to take action and four
divers were shot and many more were wounded before order was restored. There were questions
about the incident in the House of Commons but after this affair there were no more demonstrations
by divers.

Progress of the Industry.—From 1345 (1926-1927) until 1350 the diving industry was an
extremely flourishing concern. Every year some 500 diving dhows went out from Bahrain to the
pearl banks and about 20,000 men were employed as divers. During these years the annual value
of the catch reached the sum of 21J lakhs (£243,000) but after 1350 there was a decline in the price
of pearls and consequently a falling off in the number of boats and divers; between 1350 and 1360
the estimated value of the pearl catch dropped from 18 lakhs to a little over 5 lakhs and the number
of boats fell to 188. The slump in the pearl trade was due partly to the financial depression in other
countries and was partly because Japanese cultured pearls came onto the market.

The depression affected the diving industry in various ways; money was hard to obtain because
merchants would not give loans for equipping diving boats without better security than the boats
themselves, they demanded mortgages on house property or gardens as security for diving advances.
Many small nakhudas mortgaged their houses and lost them when the slump came, this was before
the Government had introduced a law forbidding the mortgaging of living houses for diving debts.
Other nakhudas came to the front because they happened to own property and therefore could obtain