Page 375 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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the price of dates, which is the staple food of the poor, at a reasonable level. The issue of cotton
cloth to the public on ration cards was kept up throughout the year, cloth rations were issued in the
towns each quarter and in the villages half yearly.

During the second half of 1365 more consumer goods began to arrive from the United Kingdom,
America and India so it was possible to remove price controls from cigarettes, toilet articles and
patent medicines. Black market traders received a severe setback when a number of stiff prison
sentences were inflicted on them which put an immediate brake on their activities, other results of
this action were the closing of a number of small shops whose owners admitted that their trade depend­
ed entirely on Black Market transactions and applications by a large number of people, who previously
bought in the Black Market, for ration cards. At the end of the year controls on many commodities
in India and elsewhere were raised and more goods were allowed to be exported from Bahrain in order
to encourage and revive trade, but although the commercial situation seemed to be somewhat easier
there was still no sign of any downward trend in prices.

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