"ملف 19/175 البحرين - تجارة اللؤلؤ" [و‎‎٢‎٤] (٨٣/٤٦)

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oo the old ays t«m of no accounts and a mocK court, tiiey would
probably prefer it,for in these cirtumstances the diners were
slaves & the Kaidiudas could not be called to account .But if the
refoma are to continue they undoubtedly prefer that the casits be
taken as at present in a court which they know to be unbiassed^
which is able to quickly dispose of thsir cas.es,- which all atree
would nevei be in any I orm of Salifeh court which could
at present "be devised.
Tiie Slate is at present aiming set tiie gradual
eliminati.n of the system whereby the divers are kept pernanintly i>^
d«bt.3y regulating the amount of advances made ,Lhi» is being rap
idly achieved. It is interesting to note how this system na*
arisen i become so abused.It has always been the custom for divers
to recieve certain advances,such as the'Salaf when the season
start!,to enable them to provide lor families while they are away,
& the 'Khanjieh' during the season,& finally the 'Tisqam' after
accounts have been settled for the season,which is by nature of a
contract to dive with the same Ka^diuda next season. Kept within
reasonable bounds ( as is the case in many places in the Gulf wnere
the I.akhudas have bot acquired such a hold over diverse advance
only sums which are reasonably covered by the seasons earnings) jthi
there is nothing very harmful in this system,but of late years the
prices of pearls having risen * the wealth of the Islands greatly
increased,there are many wore persons engaged in the industry ae
Kakhudas^ a shortage of divers arose. Avar^iciois Kakhudas started
bribing the clivers of others, to tr ansfer their services,by paying
off the alleged debt to the first Naidiuaa (generally much le a s than
the diver nimself was told;) & offering larger advances. In this
way competition started^ up went the advances made,that is, the
advances lor i i:e first few years e ach man dived . It might be sup
posed that this was in favour of toe divers,but this is not so,the
Ivakhudas continued the high advances in each case only sufficiently
long to get the diver heasily indebted so that he could not buy
himself out,& there was li„tle danger in another K„khuda risking
so much A lo take him away. Then tiu Hakhuda by swindling the diver
out 01 iiifc earnings contrived to keep him steaaily in uebt.