Page 279 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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loans more easily than bigger men whose only capital was their bpats and their divers. There were
many diving bankruptcies during the bad years and many nakhudas went out of business. The
divers during the depression increased their debts to their nakhudas but not to the extent that they
used to before the reforms. In the days of prosperity the nakhudas wanted the advances to the
divers to be large, in order to keep them in debt, when bad times came it was the Government which
had to insist on reasonable advances being given in order that the divers should be able to provide
for themselves during the off season. Ten years after the reforms it was estimated that the average
diver owed his nakhuda about Rs. 500, though many old divers had debts of over Rs. 2,000 which they
could never hope to pay off, today most divers owe their nakhudas less than Rs. 100. When the
slump first affected the diving industry many people blamed the Government's measures as being
responsible for the depression and there was a half-hearted attempt to revert to the old conditions,
nothing came of this and the diving rules arc now so well established that they can never be over­
thrown.

The War Years.—During the 1914-1918 war there was a boom in pearls and many of the
Bahrain Arabs made fortunes from dealing in pearls; when the second war came, towards the end
of 1358 (1939-1940) after a series of bad seasons, the pearl merchants expected an immediate rise in
prices although always when Bahrain has been affected by world conditions there has been a con­
siderable time lag. But the season following the outbreak of war, 1359, was the worst on record,
the European and American markets were closed and no foreign buyers visited Bahrain. In 1360
there was a definite improvement, the price of pearls was higher than it had been for some years and
the catch was of good quality and quantity. Though there was no demand for pearls for the western
countries yet there was brisk activity on the Indian market where all the Bahrain pearls were sold to
Indian buyers. Next year 1361 (1942-43) the price of pearls rose higher but so did the cost of living
and on the whole it was not a successful season for the Bahrain pearl traders. The excessive cost of
provisioning the boats absorbed most of the profits from the pearls. It is estimated that during the
war years double the amount of capital was required to finance a boat than would have been needed
during the years before the war. Owing to the high prices and keen demand for pearls in 1360 the
merchants had anticipated a better season in 1361 and more boats were equipped for diving. The
1362 season was a really good one, divers, nakhudas, merchants and brokers all did well for in spite of
the heavy cost of provisions the price of pearls was so high that almost every boat made a profit.
The Government did all that was possible to encourage the industry by providing special rations for
the divers and by allowing the nakhudas credit to buy their supplies which they paid for in instalments
during the season.

In 1363 there was a sudden decrease in the number of boats which went to the banks, many of
the smaller nakhudas could no longer find the capital which was needed to finance their boats. For­
tunately the unemployed divers had no difficulty in obtaining work on shore and according to the
diving rules they repaid from their wages a proportion of their debts to their nakhudas. There was
too a shortage of boats as owing to lack of wood no new boats could be built and it was difficult to
get the material to rebuild the old boats. Many big diving dhows were bought by foreign merchants
for use as cargo vessels trading between India and Iraq, until the Government took steps to prevent
the disposal of pearling dhows. This year only 188 boats were registered for diving and about 5,000
divers worked during the season, but the catch was a good one and pearl prices remained at a high
level.

The 1364 (1945) season was again better than that of 1363. Prices were high and all the pearls
were sold in India. A small new market developed in Iraq for low grade pearls which were bought
by Jewish dealers, but the number of diving boats was still small though in some cases bigger crews
were carried on individual boats for purposes of economy. At the annual meeting of the leaders of
the pearl industry when the amount of the advances was discussed all the nakhudas admitted that
they had done well during the season and advocated higher advances to the divers to cover the
increased cost of living and also to attract new blood to the industry by the prospect of cash in hand.