Coll 35/25(4) 'Telegraphs, Postal and Wireless. Arabic broadcasts by B.B.C. and All-India Radio (including minutes of Persian Gulf Radio Listeners' Ctte)' [‎253r] (505/523)

Confidential
D.O.No.2121* Bahrain, December 27, 1939.
Dear Weightman,
Sometime ago you sent me a note purporting to be an
opinion on local feeling about the war. I entirely disagree
with the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. f s views.
2. The majority of the population in Bahrain consists of
the Baharna (Shia aboriginals) and the Arab diver class, all
of whom are illiterate and not in the habit of reading papers
or listening in to the wireless. These people are more or
less inarticulate and at present they are contented, not
much interested in the war -- because they know and under
stand so little about it — and are pro-British almost from
habit. The Baharna, especially the older men, are grateful
to the British for having relieved them from the oppression
of the Khalifah, which they never forget, and the diver class
Arabs are satisfied with their government which they are
apt to regard, vaguely, as having some connection with the
British, because they are at present more prosperous than
they used to be owing to employment in the oil field and in
public works. I can state definitely that this class is
pro-British and wishes Britain to win the war. I see no
reason for changing their outlook unless the war affects
their lives detrimentally, by causing great increase in cost
of living or unemployment. Personally 1 do not think there
is any political advantage to be gained by propaganda among
this class or by teaching them about the war. In any case
the illiterate Arabs and the Baharna do not provide a fertile
field for propaganda.
3. The other class consists of educated townsmen in
/ Manamah