"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٩‎٣‎٧] (١٧٨٢/١٠٩٢)

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administrative rightB existed, it was unnecessary and undesirable
to invoke publicly the terms of the Agreement of 1892. The first hospital
and dispensary in Bahrain, with 21 beds, was opened by the Mission
in 1902 under the name of the " Mason Memorial Hospital."" From
the 1st of November 1901 the services of the physician attached to the
Arabian Mission were retained by the Government of India for the
benefit of their political representative in Bahrain; and in 1903,
notwithstanding the decision to establish the "Queen Victoria Memorial
Hospital," it was resolved to continue this arrangement on account of
the good work done by the Mission.
German interests in Bahrain, 1895-1904.
The appearance in Bahrain in 1901 of a German firm, doing business
in mother -of-pearl shells, gave rise to various political questions; it was a
branch of the Hamburg house of Traun, Stiirken & Co. and was
established by a Mr. Wonckhaus, after whom, as he was a partner in the
Persian Gulf branch of the business, it was styled Robert Wonckhaus & Co.
This Mr. Wonckhaus, who originally came to the Gulf in 1897 and who
until 1901 resided chiefly at Lingeh, was believed to have relations with
the German Government; and, on a visit to the coast of Trucial ; Oman,
he succeeded in obtaining by an artifice copies of the Treaties of
the Trucial Shaikhs with Great Britain. Except an agency of the
British house of Gray, Paul & Co. of Bushehr, who since about 1890
had been represented at Manamah by an English-speaking native, this
was the first European firm to secure footing in Bahrain.
As the Shaikh of Bahrain had reason to suppose that the new firm,
then about to be established, would endeavour to deal in cheap spirits, he
published, in 1900, an edict prohibiting the introduction of alcoholic
liquor into Bahrain under penalty of confiscation ; and the interdict, on the
understanding that it should not be interpreted as preventing the import
ation of liquor by Europeans for their own consumption, was held by the
Government of India to be unobjectionable.
The question of the purchase of house property by Mr. Wonckhaus
soon arose; and in 1902 it was ruled by the Government of India that,
as the question was one of private ownership merely, no opposition need
be made to the acquisition of premises by Mr. Wonckhaus, but that it
EstabUsh-
ment of the
firm
Messrs. R.
"Wonckhaus
& Co., 1901.
Importation
of alcoholic
liquors into
Bahrain pro
hibited, 1900.
Questions of
status and
protection.