"ملف 19/175 البحرين - تجارة اللؤلؤ" [و‎‎٢‎٩] (٨٣/٥٦)

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propooed shoulbj guide #»if- Cam-tB. The first on this list v/as
that Tisqara should be free "but that Sallaf should be limited oy
the orders of the Bahrein Government. Shaikh iibdullan at Shaiich
Hajuad' s request came to discuss these articles witn me. He agreed
with me that there was no differentiation between Tisqam and
Salxaf. I asked Shaiich Abdullah to tell Shaijch Hamad to proceed
with the fixing of the amounts of Tisqam, setting if he liked a
maximum below which the UaJthoda and his crew would be at liberty
to come to an agreement, but 1 said that something should be
done as the crew and their families had to live and they relied
on Tisqam for maintenance.
Shaikh Hamad appears to have conferred witn the merchants
and^then went off hawking.
Three or four days ago Belgrave informed me that the Tisqam
had been fixed at Rs.SO/- for divers and Rs.60/- for pullers,
and that these amounts were considered by the divers to be very
low. I informed Belgrave that 1 also considered them too low.
The next move was that on Thursday 30th December about ^00
divers marched out to Sukhair where Shaikh Hamad was hawking to
asK him to increase the amount of the Tisqam. Shaijcn Hamad
appears to have promised to give the matter consideration, and
fixed the divers up with some sort of accommodation for the night.
Yesterday nothing happened. This morning being Lew fear
day Shaikh Esa, who has also been out hawking for the past week,
came in to call on me bringing a large number of his family
including Shaikh Hamad, ^fter the departure of Shaiich Esa for
Vuharraq, Shaikhsjllamad and Abdullah, who had seen him off, returned
to the Agency and told me about the visit of the divers to
Sukhair and asked me if I thought the Tisqam was too low. I said
that the divers and their families relied on the Tisqam for
maintenance and to pay past debts and that it was certainly too
low. They then agreed to raise it to ris.100/- and 80/), being
the same as last year and also to arrange, in the case of men,
the whole of whose money went to repay past debts, that the
merchants should advance them rice until the Sallaf. They said
that before giving this out to the divers they wished to inform