Page 372 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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RATIONING AND PRICE CONTROL
Few people of Bahrain, except those who travelled abroad, realised how well off they were in
their country during and after the war. Throughout the war years the cost of living in Bahrain was
lower than in neighbouring Gulf states and very much less than in the other countries of the Middle
East, the food ration was maintained at approximately the same scale during and after the war and
at no time was there a complete absence of any really essential commodity. Food was cheap in
Bahrain, in comparison with prices elsewhere, mainly because the Government could afford to buy,
import and sell to the people at cost price, sometimes at less than cost price, most of the necessities
of life thus cutting out the profits of middlemen and preventing opportunities for profiteering in
rationed goods.

The measures which were taken by the State to ensure that sufficient supplies of food and
clothing were available for the people of the country at reasonable prices were instituted at the begin­
ning of the war but they have continued in force, with some modifications, up to the present time.
For some time before the outbreak of war abnormal conditions prevailed in the local markets, prices
fluctuated wildly, goods were withdrawn from sale by shopkeepers who hoped later to profiteer and there
was an epidemic of wild buying in order to hoard. Shortly before war was declared the Government
issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of foodstuffs and forbidding any increase in prices above
those existing at that date with penalties for shopkeepers who refused to sell foods to the public and
who failed to keep proper accounts, at the same time the Government bought 50,000 tons of rice, to
form a food reserve. Captain A. C. Byaid, M.B.E., who was Assistant to the Adviser, was appointed
Food Controller, later this post was taken over by Mr. C. C. L. deGranier, the Director of Customs,
who held it until he retired in 1362 (1943) when Mr. G. W. R. Smith, M.B.E., became Director of
Customs and Food Controller.

The Government's efforts to prevent hoarding and profiteering were extremely distasteful to
the merchants and shopkeepers who saw big profits being made in neighbouring countries where
controls were not enforced, when sugar was sold in Bahrain at Rs. 33-8 a bag it was fetching Rs. 70
a bag in Kuwait and Rs. 80 in Dubai. The Bahrain importers and retailers were allowed a reasonable
fixed percentage of profit but this did not satisfy them and the general public were singularly apathetic,
most of them were in debt to the shopkeepers and therefore if they were overcharged they were afraid
of complaining. During the first two years of the war the cost of living rose steeply in spite of the
efforts of the Government to keep food prices low, the reason being the increase in prices of commodi­
ties at the source over which the Bahrain Government had no control, the price of imported dates, as
an example, rose 145% in one year and although the price of locally grown dates was controlled the
Bahrain crop only provided about half the country’s needs.
By 1361 (1942) it was evident that the Government could count on no help or co-operation
from the Bahrain merchants. Most of the leading importers were foreigners and though many of
them had made fortunes in Bahrain when it came to a question between private gain and common
good none of them showed any esprit de patrie. Because bigger profits could be made elsewhere the
merchants concentrated on obtaining goods from India for sale in other states and they used the diffi­
culties, delays and restrictions which existed over getting supplies out of India as an excuse for not
importing goods into Bahrain though they managed to overcome these difficulties in the case of
cargoes for Iraq and Kuwait where they could make more money.

1361 was a difficult year. There was much unemployment in Bahrain and conditions in general
were bad. The Government tried to buy a large supply of rice, wheat and sugar from India but un­
fortunately this attempt was made just too late to succeed. Lack of shipping space in the Gulf
was a serious problem and Bahrain was at a disadvantage, when compared with Kuwait and other
ports, because it owned scarcely any cargo boats which could be used for carrying goods from India,
the three or four ocean going dhows owned by Bahrain nakhudas were employed between India
and Iraq.