'File 8/16 Bahrain Intelligence Summaries' [‎16r] (31/330)

™. 1 n ber ^ t; ^ buii ¥ ? lov,ud down * It, hna now boon decided to
truction^work W ° rk ln h{,nd and to und ertake no further cons-
51* Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited
i• Ref ^ e ? C< r Paragraph 40 of Intelligence Summary No. 3
i9 7 3 wh ich it was reported that the Bahrain Petroleum Corn
et ^ + aci ?* f ?P or 5 e< ^ thirty head of cattle and sheep with which to
soar a livestock farm. The difficulties of providing suitable
loader in aaequate quantity have been found insuperable. The
animals have therefore been slaughtered and their carcases placed
-■.n cold storage. ^
(n) In paragraph 214oof Intelligence Summary No. 19 of 1942
reference was made to the feeling of unrest among British emp-
lo^ees of the Company caused by their protracted detention in
Bahrain without the opportunity of returning home. That feeling
0 t>a U n reS ^- 1S £ 0 ^_ i lessene ^ by ffre circumstance that their American
cind Canadian fellow employees are still able to take home leave;
«na it is vastly aggravated by recent experience in regard to
mails. vVhereas mail from the American continent arrives with
reasonable speed and regularity, letters from the British Isles
intervals after delays of many months. Many
^xitish employees of the Oil Company - like other British resi-
uenv.s oi Bahrain - have had no letters from England for three,
our or even six months though they have correspondents who write
regularly oy air mail every week. This absence of contact with
amilies and friends at home has on British employees of the Com-*
pany an unsettling effect which the enervating climate of Bahrain
renuers all the more insidious and demoralising.
52 • C alifornia Arabian Standard Oil Company
Indian employees of the Company, though they are not sub
ject to industrial conscription, have for several weeks been show-
ing signs of discontent. After having decided to stage a strike
as a preliminary to presenting their demands to the Company’s
management they learned that strikes are illegal in Saudi Arabia
ana that they would be arrested and put in gaol if they carried ^
out their intention. Nineteen of them therefore presented their
demands without lirst going on strike. The demands, which relat
ed to every aspect of the conditions of their employment, were
couched in what the Company regarded as belligerent and offensive
language; and the Management refused tofoondider the petition
unless it were rewritten in more temperate words. / a typical
the petition is !- ’'He was a true American who the
cuher day so appropriately described this our bunkhouse as Cooly
Bunkhouse No• 17”__/ • The employees concerned refused to rewrite
their petition; and, in protest against its rejection, resigned ' .
?.n a body. The Management accepted the resignation of the two
ringleaders ana sent them at once to Bahrain to wait for passages
^ no ^ known what action the remaining seventeen
disaffected employees propose to take.
53. Meteorological
Maximum temperature .. 87.8° on February 18th
Minimum temperature .. 55.9° on February 19th
Humidity varied between 71 % and 96 %.
Ha infall 0.33 inches.
Sd/- E. B. Wakefield
Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , Bahrain.