Page 354 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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All leave was stopped when the war began and men who had completed their service were not
given their discharge, this was the nearest approach to compulsory service that ever existed in Bahrain.
From the day on which war was declared the arrangements which had been previously made came
into effect and the police took over the duties of guarding the refinery, the oil wells and various places
of military importance. They worked in conjunction with Europeans and Americans who were
employed on the defence scheme, their duties included guards on gates, buildings, tanks and pipe
lines and they formed camel patrols, cavalry patrols, car patrols and sea patrols. The work was dull
and uneventful, if there had been a few incidents the men would have been keener, but it was effect­
ively carried out in spite of the language difficulty which often caused misunderstanding as the police
spoke no English and the employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company spoke no Arabic. At the
end of 1358 the police acquired a number of motor bicycles and on these they patrolled the roads in
the oil field. A machine gun section was trained in the use of 12 Vickers Bcrlhier Machine guns
which has been ordered in England before the war, later these machine guns were lent to the regular
troops who took over the defence of the refinery.

During the previous year Shaikh Khalifah bin Mohamed bin Isa had been sent to the Police
Training School at Nasik, near Bombay ; he returned from India in 1358 and was appointed Superin­
tendent of the State Police. Havildar Abdul Karim, son of the late Superintendent, Haj Sulman,
was then sent to Nasik for training and was later appointed as a Sub-Inspector.

Earlier in the year, before war was declared H.M. King Ibn Saud paid a visit to Bahrain and
the police took a leading part in many of the events during his ten days’ visit which included a cere­
monial parade and a torchlight tattoo on the fort parade ground in which the police with their horses
and camels and many hundreds of school boys performed. It was a type of entertainment entirely
new to most of the spectators.

By the end of 1359 (February 1940—February 1941) the strength of the State police was 395
N.C.O’s and men, 150 special police were enlisted for oil field duties and together with the naturs
the forces of the State amounted to about 700 armed, trained men. There was a deterioration in the
type of men who offered themselves as recruits and the standard of height and physical fitness was
relaxed, though good eyesight was compulsory, men under s'-G" were accepted. The special police
were trained at the Fort and were then put under the command of the Defence Officer; throughout
the war various British officers held this post under different designations.

During this year a beginning was made in dividing the police into civil and military branches
and a body of N.C.O’s and men were allocated to the town police stations under Sub-Inspector Abdul
Karim. Various changes were made in the clerical and administrative staff of the police and per­
manent police posts, supplied by the mounted sections, were set up at Budeya and at Door, on the
east coast. A jail was built on Jida island for long term prisoners and with prison labour jetties
were built at Budeya, and at Jaw and a barrack room was constructed on Safra rifle range.

In 1360 (January 1941—February 1942) no police were recruited, leave was once again granted
in Bahrain, but not for men wishing to go abroad and the annual musketry courses were resumed,
the average marksmanship was unusually high. A new police station was opened at Muharraq in a
large Arab house on the south of the town which was bought by the Government and converted
into a police headquarters. It was found that the system of appointing permanent N.C.O’s and
men in the police station while having much to commend it presented certain disadvantages, however
the system was adopted and has been continued.

During the following year there was a further increase in the police and naturs, night patrols
were started in Manama to prevent thieving which took place at night and mounted patrols were
successful in detecting numerous bands of persons, usually indigent Persians, who were trying to enter
Bahrain without passports. The police were trained in A.R.P. exercises and the band was taught
first aid and stretcher work. When the R.A.F. decided to recruit two companies of local levies the