'ملف رقم 19/169 III (C 80) الإصلاحات في البحرين' [و‎‎٦‎١] (٣٧٨/١٣٤)

Confidential
D.O. Ho. C/
Dated the 29th May 1939
BUSH1RE RESIDENCY.
CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS
vrmiiSti/ ■ i CTttw
In paragraphs 3(iii) and S of my demi-official letter
No. C/666 of the 27th October 1938 I said that I thought con
sideration should be given to schemes for providing employment
for the poorer classes of Bahrain. I have had this thought in
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mind ever since, and with it various ideas for creating industries
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which might supplement and ultimately replace the oil industry
in Bahrain. We are exhorting the Bahrain Government to set aside
large sums of money annually from their oil royalties in order
to provide a Reserve sufficient in future years to ensure the
continued administration of Bahrain on the scale that exists at
present; hut I cannot help feeling that the money which is going
into the Reserve is not being quite sufficiently !, active". It is
admittedly earning interest and so is providing for the continua
nce of social services in future, but it does not actively con
tribute towards the commercialisation of Bahrain and the conseque
increased prosperity of its people. . I do not mean to suggest
that I would recommend a serious diminution of the sums placed
in the Reserve annually, but I think we should consider whether
some part of the annual surpluses should not be devoted to more
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productive schemes.
2. When Ibn Saud was being taken round the Refinery, Shaikh
Hamad pointed out to him a stone-crusher which was at work and
most inaccurately described it as a machine for making cement.
At/-
rable Lieutenant-Colonel
r Trenchard Fowle, K.C.I.E., C.B.E.,
I Political Resident in the Persian Gulf,
Bushire.
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