Page 398 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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Although the quantity and quality of certain staple foods arc restricted by quotas and rationing
yet more meat, vegetables and imported tinned goods such as biscuits, fruits, sweets, sauces and
jams are being used by the Arabs, for example, the import of chewing gum is six times higher than
it was before the war and smoking has greatly increased. Patent medicines and toilet goods, such
as soap, tooth brushes, etc., are in fairly general use. Quota restrictions have reduced the available
quantity of cheap cotton goods but more expensive materials, ready made clothes, shoes, socks and
woollen goods which are not rationed are used increasingly by the Arabs. Twenty years ago it was
very unusual for an Arab to wear European clothes, the son of one of the Qadis returned from Cairo
attired in a suit and was ordered to change his clothes before landing from the steamer, but today
most young Arabs possess complete European wardrobes and labourers usually wear trousers and shirts,
which are more practical but less pleasing to the eye than their national dress. The Ruling Family,
when in Bahrain, and the older Arabs still adhere strictly to the Arab dress though many now wear
shoes instead of sandals. Fashions have changed among women almost more than among men, roost
school girls in the towns wear semi European dress and many European articles of attire are worn in
the harems.
During the war building was almost at a standstill, for lack of imported materials, but for
some years before the war and after it ended there was a good deal of building activity and an improve­
ment in the type of houses which were erected. The number of barastis (date-palm huts) inside
Manama and Muharraq towns is rapidly decreasing and stone houses are taking the place of barastis,
though in many cases the wealthier people still migrate from their town houses to the coast or to cooler
parts of the islands in the summer time and spend the hot months living in barastis. Unfortunately
the high cost of building, which applies equally to stone houses or barastis, which is caused by high
wages and the inflated prices of local building materials has now made it impossible for people without
much capital to build new houses. The boom in land prices, which have risen to extravagant heights,
partly the result of so many people having made money and being unable to find any object in which
to invest it, except in land, has also put a brake on the building of small new houses. Before the
war there was a tendency for people to forsake Muharraq for Manama and many shops and houses
in Muharraq became empty. During the war the situation changed and owing to the excessive over­
crowding in Manama people hired houses in Muharraq and the only ones remaining empty there were
the houses of a number of the younger members of the Ruling Family who gave up living in Muharraq
in favour of Rafaa and Kozaibia.

Effects of the War.—The war dealt lightly with Bahrain. Apart from a certain amount of
discomfort and inconvenience caused by such measures as rationing and the lack of imported goods
the general effect of the war, after the first year or two, was increased prosperity. The Arabs of
Bahrain had to endure no physical suffering from the war, when the Italians made an abortive attempt
to bomb the refinery most people in Bahrain knew nothing about it until the following day, that
incident was the closest contact of the war on Bahrain. The local population on the whole did not
worry over much about the result; few, if any, thought that their lives or their interests were in
danger and the majority of the general public had a very dim idea as to what the war was about.
The result of war time conditions in Bahrain, the presence of foreign troops in the country for the
first time in its history, with close contacts between them and the inhabitants, and the inevitable oppor­
tunities of making money easily by methods not strictly legal, and in many cases entirely illegal, had
a demoralising effect on the population which will take time to eradicate. The war seemed to shatter
commercial integrity and to cause a rapid deterioration of manners, morals and honesty which was
not due to any bad example shown by the troops in Bahrain, for their behaviour was on the whole
extremely good, but which sprang from the opportunities which were placed before the local popula­
tion of profiting from war time conditions. Bahrain before the war was a place, where there was
remarkably little theft, during and after the war stealing and pilfering became rampant. Drinking,
gambling and the use of narcotics increased tremendously. Imported liquors were obtainable on the
black market and those who could not pay high prices for whisky, gin and rum drank date * arak,'
raw alcohol, methylated spirits and essences sold for flavouring sweets. ‘ Hashish * made its appear-
ance in Bahrain during the war and the use of opium increased. Prostitution flourished more openly
than it did in the past and the amount of venereal disease was extremely high. It is difficult to judge
to what extent the war was directly responsible for such a change in the people of Bahrain but the
war provided the money and the incentives.