'ملف رقم 19/169 III (C 80) الإصلاحات في البحرين' [و‎‎٣] (٣٧٨/١٨)

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"durbars" for the daily access to any one of its members
would be far from popular. My brief experience of Arabs
is that they like to be able to make their complaint or
petition as and when the spirit moves them, rather than
wait till "next Wednesday"; and of course here they do
get an assurance of investigation — and the investigation
is made*
*0* r
6. With reference to paragraphs 7 and 8 of your letter,
relating to the matter of the Bahrain Petroleum Company,
"■'-'Wwirtatlfc.--
though I am of course avoiding too active intervention I
feel there are equally good reasons for avoiding too rigid
aloofness. It seems to me that if I can do anything to
%
remove the possibility of labour trouble, I should "go to it"
because
(a) Some day we may need this oil badly and we shall
not want labour troubles to interfere with supply;
(b) Though the Bahrain Petroleum Company is actually
an American concern, it is nevertheless a registered
British Company, and legally entitled to protection
under the Bahrain Order in Council. It would ill
accord with our ideas if I held aloof until we
reached the stage when the intervention of the Law
became necessary.
(c) Reducing the question to its lowest terms, the
Political Agent can get the Oil Company moving
rather faster and more effectively than any one
else. Thus, though I should rigorously avoid
being mixed up in individual cases, there seems
much advantage in the Political Agent taking part '
in discussions of general principles, if by so
doing he can expedite the removal of a potential
source of general complaint (e.g. the elimination
of % Mten anna wage-rate, cf. paragraph SCiii) of
my demi-official letter No. C/763 dated the 10th
December 1938) or the grant of desirable general
concessions (e.g. paid Holidays and a provident
fund, cf. paragraph 3(vii) of the same letter).
(d) As a corollary to the above. The Agency has
fairly considerable prestige in Bahrain and
Belgrave agrees with me that most people would
be satisfied if the Political Agent stated that
he had taken an interest in an investigation into
such and such a general allegation and had satis
fied himself that it was unfounded.
7. I agree entirely that the Political Agent should try
to create confidence in both sides that he is a benevolent
«? i ^
arbitrator./